Rummelpott

This year, we spent New Year at our friends’ farm near Schleswig in Northern Germany. We went by ferry, partly due to cost, partly due to not wanting to be abused at the airports but mainly because there are no convenient flights to that part of the world from Scotland. Scotland has a reputation as the New Year party location with huge Hogmanay parties in Edinburgh and other major towns but many countries have their own interesting traditions and Scheswig’s tradition is the Rummelpott.

Rummelpot is not entirely unlike Guising (or it’s American cousin Trick or Treat) but involves the whole village to a greater extent – everyone singing a song in Plattdeutsch and then the children collecting sweets and the adults receiving a shot of Schnapps. Our children dressed up in various costumes (Robbie The Racing Car, Buzz Lightyear and Graf Zahl) and the grown ups had their own outfits, our friend put on a blonde curly wig which rather reminded me of Lily Savage (although I kept quiet as I really couldn’t be bothered translating that one into German for her). They suggested that I could have my face painted Braveheart style. The kids said that they would do this and we told them to paint on blue stripes. This is what they came up with:

The weather whilst we were away was pretty dreadful. There is usually snow on the ground at this time and when we have done Rummelpott before the younger children have been towed around on a sled. There was no chance of it this year as we appear to have arrived during the monsoon season. Fortunately the rain mostly held off for the Rummelpott and during the tour of the village our children somehow amassed 4.5 Kg of sweets. In fact I had to carry the bag for Sophia as she was struggling to lift the thing. We were struggling to walk straight as well as that is one serious amount of Schnapps to be drinking in one go and I'm sure that someone was propped up at the Burgermeister's house.

The other big thing with German Silvester celebrations is fireworks at midnight. This has some similarity with Hogmanay celebrations but it is much more common for each family to buy their own rockets. These were the ones we had. (Incidentally, that is a picture of the rockets next to a lit candle – they were actually sitting in the candle jar before I had the foresight to remove them: although this is also the village that has a cigarette machine outside the fire station, so what can I say?)

I took the kids out for a walk on New Years Day and they spent most of the time greeting on about being removed from the comfort of the television. However, I did find something that rather appealed to my sense of local history. I had noticed a sign next to the road near Lottorf but always assumed it was indicating some utility access. Having walked closer to it I noticed that it indicated the location of a military grave:

The text reads (as best as I can make out): Hier ruht ein Kaiserlich Österreichischen Krieger gefallen am 3 Febr 1864 (Here rests an Imperial Austrian Warrior fallen on the 3rd February 1864)

Having done some research, this appears to be from the Battle for Königshügel during the Second Schleswig War. This is about 4Km away near Selk but I’m not sure whether this was an official grave or whether it was just local people giving the soldier a decent burial. Whatever the reason the grave does appear to be well tended in spite of the moss on the headstone. There is actually a larger memorial to the battle in Selk but there doesn't seem to be any reference to this lone, nameless Austrian soldier.