Christmas in Austria

The people in Austria call the 31st of December Silvester. The families celebrate with friends until the morning. The people meet in the late afternoon or in the evening. About 8 o'clock p.m. they have dinner and then they wait until midnight. Then they light fireworks. People tell each other  "Prosit Neujahr!" and they give their friends little presents: e.g. little plastic soft toy pigs. After that they often eat "Sauschädel" (a bit of a pig's heat). The people usually drink a lot (beer, wine or champagne)  it's very funny every year. Next year, when we all celebrate the year 2000 we are sure that in every town and every city there will be a lot of parties. In the middle of the cities there are  parties too. Sometimes there are also accidents, but such things don't happen too often... The big clock of the "Stephansdom"  which call "Die Bumerin"  let us every year hear when the year change. There stand lot of people in front of the "Stephansdom" and when she ring, all make a big party and they are very happy.
Dani Fazekas, Julia Kucharowits, Berit Krenn
The last four Sundays in December before Christmas Eve, we can see a light on the Candles of an "Adventkranz", which has different colours. On the 6th December comes the "heilige Nikolaus" to the little children and brings them little presents. At the day before the Krampus comes to the silly children.
The little Austrian children write a list of their wishes and send it to the "Christkind". There is a Christmas tree in every family. Some children help their parents to decorate the Christmas tree. But also some parents give their children to the grandparents. The grandparents go with them in the cinema, before they drive home. The parents decorate it with candles, sweets and biscuits. A famous cookie is the "Vanillekipferl". This is an old tradition, which is kept by nearly every family. Only on Christmas-Evening the children may enter the room, where the tree stands. The "Christkind" puts the presents under the X-mas-Tree. Most families eat fish or turkey. On Christmas day many people go to church. 26th December is called Saint  Steven's Day.

By Marion, Raffi, Sanja and Thallili

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