Thursday, December 31:
New Year’s Eve, at the conclusion Knecht Ruprecht, since he is connected with the forest. Tat tvam asi, R. says to me again. This is you, pointing out everything to me, the children, the house, his works. When he goes out in the afternoon he always takes bread for the birds with him, and our gardener has instructions to sweep our grave site and to scatter food for the birds on it. I go to church with Fidi and Eva; Nun danket alle Gott by candlelight.
In the evening Herr O. Bach, who arrives from Coburg and tells us of the convincing success of his Lenore, describing the decorations, his visit to the ducal box, and so on. The Nibelungen Kanzlei listens somewhat skeptically. All kinds of music up to midnight, a Haydn symphony, pieces from Marschner’s Templer und Judin, in which R. points out the great talent and the complete lack of taste and style of the Germans, also that for the musician the situation is everything, never the words.
The bells ring in the New Year. Our servants come to exchange greetings. I go up to the children, who are asleep; Loldi is the only one to wake up, and we wish each other happiness.