Category: General Interest

On New Year’s Eve, luck is conjured up for the following year. But beware: with these five foods, you can also bring bad luck into your house. Even if you don’t think much of superstition otherwise, everything is different on New Year’s Eve! Why else do we give our loved ones lucky little charms, marzipan and cast monstrosities made of lead or wax to predict the future? Everyone wants to have luck in the new year! And if you can conjure it up with certain foods, such as lentils –…

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The most exciting and bizarre customs and traditions circulate during the New Year. Hanging out laundry over New Year’s Eve: why?The belief that you should not leave laundry hanging on the clotheshorse over the New Year has (as so often) to do with ghosts. There are a few versions of this: According to ancient tradition, evil spirits come into the world of the living after the “winter solstice.” First and foremost, Wotan, the skin god of the Germanic tribes or god of the dead and storm, is on the move…

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Similar to last year, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day will be extremely mild, according to forecasts. Highs are expected to range between ten and 18 degrees. “Only in case of persistent fog can it remain cooler, with highs around six degrees,” Sabrina Marth of the Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics (ZAMG) said on Wednesday. This puts the maximum values in the range of the records, both of which date from the previous year. According to the report, the highest temperature on New Year’s Eve day was 18.3…

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This year, Customs have taken more illegal pyrotechnics and fireworks significantly out of circulation than the previous year. There is also a threat of severe penalties. While 954 fireworks were seized upon importation during mobile checks in the previous year, by mid-December 2022, the number had almost doubled to 1,720. On Tuesday, Finance Minister Magnus Brunner (ÖVP) said, “Do not rely on illegal firecrackers or rockets that are potentially dangerous to you or other people.” Danger from illegal fireworksOf 1,215 fireworks seized this year, there is a medium danger. However,…

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Those who still have to shop on New Year’s Eve in Vienna will have time to do so in most stores until the evening. Here are all the opening hours of supermarkets, drugstores and shopping centers on December 31, 2022. Whether it’s champagne, lucky charms or groceries: on New Year’s Eve, people often have a lot of things to get. December 31, 2022, falls on a Saturday, so many stores are open until the evening. According to Vienna’s opening hours ordinance, on New Year’s Eve, last-minute purchases in general retail…

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The streaming service Netflix has recently lost subscribers, and forecasts predict an even more significant loss of customers in the coming months. As a result, plans have been developed to cut costs, increase revenue and make the service more attractive. An essential part of this plan is to get money from all those Netflix users who have been using the streaming service for free for years. Account sharing is a thorn in Netflix’s side because the multiple profiles per subscription are only supposed to be used by family members in…

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From 2023, all plastic packaging such as yogurt pots, plastic bags or tubes will be collected together with plastic bottles and beverage cartons throughout Austria in the yellow garbage can or the yellow bag. From 2023, everything will go into the yellow garbage canSo far, light packaging has been handled differently in the provinces, and in Vienna, for example, it has been incinerated as residual waste. Vienna is also considering placing blue-yellow garbage cans in residential buildings in the future but is initially only testing this in a small part…

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More expensive vignettes, new currencies and changes in border controls. 2023 will bring some changes when travelling by car. The enormous inflation is currently hitting the population hard. Car drivers, in particular, can prepare themselves for significantly higher costs next year. Fuel tax, NoVA, engine tax, insurance, the vignette or speeding fines – prices will increase almost everywhere for motorists in 2023. An overview is available here. But in Austria and abroad, there will be some changes in the coming year. These are not only price-related but also of a…

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The holidays passed almost all over the country with a surprisingly warm thaw. Now it is getting a bit cooler again; frosty nights are imminent.On Sunday, under the influence of high pressure – starting from the western Mediterranean Sea – a weather-calming foehn southwesterly current is established over the Alps. On Monday, a weak cold front approaches from the northwest, causing a temporary temperature drop on Tuesday and Wednesday. Today, Monday, there will be partly tenacious ground fog or high fog at Lake Constance, in the southern valleys and basins,…

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