Photographed at London Stansted airport on December 28th:

Does this mean fireworks? But surely they aren’t allowed on the other side either, most of the time?

A couple of days ago, Gerhard Schröder and Joschka Fischer suggested to the Germans that they should donate money to help those affected by the Asian tsunami instead of on fireworks: Spenden statt Böllern. Böller is a colloquial word for (noisy) fireworks); böllern usually means firing a gun noisily, but here it means letting off fireworks. Report:

bq. The German foreign minister, Joschka Fischer, and the Austrian chancellor, Wolfgang Schuessel, on Wednesday called on their citizens to donate to relief for the Asian disaster rather than spend money on traditional New Year’s fireworks.

After that it seemed as if letting off fireworks meant you hadn’t donated. And fireworks manufacturers are part of the economy too – why should they be the ones to lose sales? So some people are saying they’re doing both: ‘Böllern und Spenden – ich mache beides’.

Or you could have a silent festival of light like the one at Nankendorf:

bq. Traditionell gefeiert wird heute noch in einigen Regionen Deutschlands. In Nankendorf (Fränkische Schweiz) etwa ist Silvester das katholische Fest der ewigen Anbetung, das man mit einer Lichterprozession, brennenden Holzstößen, bengalischen Leuchtfeuern und elektrisch beleuchteten Kreuzen auf Berghängen begeht.

Is this Catholic festival related to the bonfires in Louisiana? Seemingly not, because that comes before Christmas.

Mind you, I just watch fireworks. No Bleigießen this year, only Bibelstechen.