Guten Rutsch! New Year's Eve and New Year Wishes in German

German has one wish for before midnight and another for after. Until the clock strikes twelve, you wish people einen guten Rutsch, literally "a good slide" into the new year. From the first second of January, it's Frohes neues Jahr!

Mix them up and people will smile, nothing worse. Get them right and you'll sound like you've lived here for years. Here are the wishes, the words for the night itself, and the rules for the fireworks that light up every German street.

Guten Rutsch starts weeks before the night itself. Colleagues say it on their last day before the Christmas break, and a shop assistant may wish it to you in mid-December. Bis nächstes Jahr! is the matching joke when you'll actually see someone again in five days.

Prosit Neujahr is what people shout at midnight, glass in hand. It comes from Latin prosit, "may it be good for you", the same word as in Prost.

How long can you say it? At work and with neighbours, Frohes Neues! is fine for the first week or two of January, the first time you see someone. After mid-January it starts to sound late.

Silvester is named after Pope Silvester I, whose feast day is 31 December. Nobody thinks of him at midnight, but every German calendar still prints his name on the date.

Lucky Charms for the New Year

In late December, shops and bakeries sell small lucky charms to give away. They often turn up on the table at a New Year's Eve party, or stuck in a card.

How Germans Spend the Night

Raclette or fondue. The classic New Year's Eve meal is slow: a raclette grill or a fondue pot in the middle of the table, and hours of cooking your own food in small portions.

Dinner for One. Every 31 December, German TV shows a short black-and-white British comedy sketch from the 1960s, Dinner for One. Millions watch it every year, and The same procedure as every year is a catchphrase most Germans know. Strangely, it's almost unknown in Britain.

Wachsgießen. People used to melt lead on a spoon, drop it into cold water, and read the future in the shape. Lead kits have been banned in the EU since 2018, so now it's wax: Wachsgießen.

Berliner with a surprise. Jam doughnuts are a New Year's treat in many regions. At parties, one of them is sometimes filled with mustard instead of jam.

Resolutions. Was sind deine guten Vorsätze? comes up at every party. The classics: mehr Sport machen, gesünder essen, weniger am Handy sein.

Fireworks: What's Allowed

• When you can buy: ordinary fireworks for adults are sold only from 29 to 31 December, or from the 28th when one of those days is a Sunday, and only to people aged 18 and over.
• When you can set them off: only on 31 December and 1 January. The rest of the year you need a special permit.
• Where you can't: near churches, hospitals, children's homes and care homes, and close to half-timbered and thatched houses. Many cities also ban fireworks in their old towns or busy squares, the Böllerverbotszone. Check your town's website.
• Pets: the night is hard on dogs and cats. Keep them inside, close the curtains, and don't take dogs for a walk around midnight.
• The morning after: you're expected to clear the rocket sticks and paper in front of your own house.

These lines go into the last emails before the holidays and onto company Christmas cards, usually together: Frohe Weihnachten und einen guten Start ins neue Jahr!