German and Chemistry Honors Students Celebrate "Silvester" with "Bleigiessen"

German III and IV Honors students collaborated with Chemistry Honors students to celebrate New Year's Eve or Silvester. The students met in the chem lab to reenact the German tradition of Bleigiessen (link to the tradition of Bleigiessen) to predict their fortunes for the New Year.

In this tradition, a person holds a spoon over a flame to melt down a small amount of tin (Zinn) or wax (Wachs), and then pours it into a container of cool water to produce a “frozen” shape. Whether wax or tin, once in cold water, a unique shape forms. Each shape is then interpreted to predict that person’s fate for the coming year.