Talk of the Town: Weird and wonderful is New Year’s Eve!

New Year’s Eve is a popular holiday celebrated all over the world with fireworks, cannon-fire counting-down the clock and all sorts of other fun-filled activities. But there are other, less conventional ways of greeting the new year thanks to the folks at Hotelclub.com. Here’s a look at three of the world’s most unusual New Year’s traditions:

New Year’s under water

Lake Baikal, the world’s deepest lake and Earth’s largest freshwater reserve in southern Siberia, is host to one of the strangest, most dangerous traditions. Professional divers will cut a hole in the ice covering the lake, dive down more than 120 feet and take part in a ritual carried out every year since 1982.

One of the divers gets to carry the New Year’s tree to the bottom of the lake with the help of equipment weighing more than 200 pounds, while others will dance around the tree. The Ice Maiden and Father Frost, two popular figures in Russian culture, will also be present for the festivities and the divers will get to have their pictures taken with them. Whoo! Whoo! Scuba-divers from the Siberian city of Novosibirsk have become famous for performing the dangerous dive. (Long may they live!)

New Year’s at the cemetery

For the past 11 years, the people of Talca, a small Chilean city, have been spending New Year’s with their dead relatives, at the municipal cemetery.

After the town’s vicar finishes Mass at about 11 p.m., the mayor opens the doors to the cemetery and people are welcomed with dim lights and classical music. Those who enjoy waiting for the New Year near their loved ones’ graves can do so in a peaceful atmosphere.

The tradition began in 1995, when a local family jumped the cemetery fence to spend New Year’s near their father’s grave. Now more than 5,000 people have adopted this tradition.

New Year’s soap opera

What do you think most Germans do on New Year’s Eve? I bet you would say anything but “watch an obscure British television skit.” As strange as it might seem, watching “Dinner for One” has become Germany’s most popular New Year’s tradition.

This is nothing like Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” is for Americans during the Christmas season. We’re talking about a television skit that has never been aired in Britain or any English-speaking country, but is extremely popular in a country so proud of its national culture.

Now, go out and toot your own horn. Happy New Year’s to all, and to all a good night. (Wait a minute! Is that right? Those holidays do get jumbled.)

Members of the Country Club of Green Valley had reason to celebrate all through 2008. Many couples in the club celebrated milestone wedding anniversaries this past year—that is their 50th and 60th anniversaries. A party was hosted at the Lavender Restaurant on Dec. 23 in honor of these happily married folks. Pictures and stories were shared and one bride and groom even showed up wearing a wedding gown and tuxedo!

The photos in this column show the 50th anniversary couples and the 60th. Others celebrating special anniversaries but were unable to attend the event were: Lloyd and Loella Speer, Richard and Elva Kovaric, Loyd and Dolly Sutherland and Cal and Marie Hartman.

The next time you enjoy an ice cream sundae, think of Two Rivers, Wis. According to many folks, that’s where the ice cream sundae originated. Many historians claim, but it’s never proven to be true, that the name “sundae” was created in response to the “Blue Laws” which said that ice cream sodas could not be sold on Sundays because they were to “frilly.”

Two Rivers, Wis., claims that the first ice cream sundae was served by accident in 1881. Druggist Edward Berners (1863-1939), owner of Ed Berners’ Ice Cream Parlor was asked by customer George Hallauer for a ice cream soda. Because it was Sunday, the Sabbath, Berners compromised and put ice cream in a dish and poured the chocolate syrup on top (chocolate syrup was only used for making flavored ice cream sodas at the time). Berners sampled the dish and liked it enough to begin featuring “ice cream with syrup” in his shop for the same price as a dish of ice cream. This ice cream concoction cost a nickel, and soon everybody wanted some.

And while we are on the subject of Wisconsin, the local Wisconsin Club is hosting its first meeting of 2009 on Jan. 8 at 5 p.m. at the Green Valley Elks Lodge #2592. (A little bird told me that even if you just stopped to buy gas in Wisconsin, you are invited to join.) Call Laurie at 648-1294 for more info and reservations. The popular

husband and wife team of Al and Julia Saterbak will be the featured entertainers.

rford@gvnews.com | 547-9740