Re: OT: Sylvester & Bleigiessen
| From: | John Vertical <johnvertical@...> |
|---|
| Date: | Monday, December 31, 2007, 23:36 |
|---|
>On Tue, 01 Jan 2008, caeruleancentaur wrote:
>> To our German list-members:
>>
>> Are sylvesters still celebrated in the Germanies? What about the
>> custom of bleigiessen?
>>
>My first reaction on reading the subject heading was: sounds like a
>couple of academics; what grammar did they write? Just on of those
>assumptions you make on Conlang :)
>Andrew.
Seconded. :D
---
>A quick web search indicates that Bleigießen is still around. I'm
>surprised that fears of lead poisoning haven't done away with it
>completely...
>
>--
>Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...>
Yes, and it's not an entirely German custom anyway. I was just complaining
to my mother that we forgot it this year (or technically, forgot it the
previous year). Here in Finland we call it "new year's tin", not "lead" of
any sort BTW.
Also, poisoning is not much of a worry as long as nobody eats anything.
Barely-molten tin and lead both have negligible vapor pressure; a quick
calculation suggests that around 300°C, there would be less tin vapor in the
air than naturally occuring radon. (If that even was your concern?)
John Vertical
Reply