Fire-tongue-bowl

Well, well... it's this time o' the year again! Time for thick coats, cold fingers and hot mugs of mulled wine to - well, not reheat the fingers, but to say it more aptly - burn them. ;-) Traditionally, an old German movie, "Die Feuerzangenbowle", is screened at FSU every year around St. Nic's day. I went there yesterday - and it was just great! The biggest lecture hall at FSU was filled to the brim with 700 merry students, all eager to once again see the funny experiences of doctorate and former private scholar Hans Pfeiffer while attending a public school for the first time in his life. The movie was made in the 1944, starring one of Germany's most popular actors ever, Heinz Rühmann. This movie has by now attained a kind of cult status, so the event yesterday turned into something comparable to screening "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" - people stand up and raise their plastic cups (filled with this ominous drink called "Feuerzangenbowle") at every opportunity they get. Others bring alarm clocks (most preferably, the old ones with bells and loud ringing) and let them go off in a certain scene. Also, maaany of us (I have to admit that this includes me, too) know a lot of the movie quotes by heart and whenever one of them comes up (such as "Aber nur einen wönzigen Schlock!"), the whole lecture hall booms from the sound of hundreds of voices droning on. ;-)
Sounds like a great evening?!? I bet you it was! Even more so, since there were some good fillers for the intermissions - e.g. a lottery, Saint Nic bringing in gingerbread for everyone or a band playing all kinds of fun music. And all the while you see the frozen image of one of the most romantic scenes of the movie - Hans and his newfound girlfriend Eva holding hands. I just loove this time of the year!!!




Alle Jahre wieder... kommt "Die Feuerzangenbowle". Das heißt im Klartext: 700 Leute füllen den größten Hörsaal an der Jenaer Uni bis zum letzten Platz aus, es gibt Feuerzangenbowle im Überfluss, die Luft im Hörsaal gleicht nach 2 Stunden eher der einer Schnapsbrennerei und die Stimmung bei Szenen wie "Aber nur einen wönzigen Schlock!" ist einfach bombastisch. :-)
So genießt man doch gerne die allzu oft so hektische Vorweihnachtszeit! ;-)

Hanna

P.S.: Happy St. Nicholas to all of you - was surprised by gifts this morning - some of them also in my shoes (which is the traditional German way of celebrating this day)!