A German New Year's Eve fortune
Bleigießen, or lead pouring, is a New Year's Eve custom in Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Finland. A little metal is melted on a spoon over a candle and dropped into cold water, where it sets into a strange shape. Held up to the light, its shadow is read as a sign for the coming year.
Lead sets were withdrawn from sale in the EU in 2018, and families moved to tin or wax. Here nothing hot is involved: the spoon, the splash, the piece and its shadow are drawn on screen, and the shape is picked at random from 16 traditional figures.
How to pour
One pour per guest is the custom.
Type the name of who is pouring, or leave it empty.
Press Pour and watch the tin set in the water.
Read the figure and its meaning aloud, then pass the phone.
What the page does
The ritual without the hot spoon.
- 16 figures from the classic Bleigießen chart, each with a meaning
- The piece in the bowl and its shadow on the wall
- A name for each pour and a list of the evening
- Random shapes from a secure generator
- No metal, no lead, nothing to clean up
Made for
Anyone counting down to midnight.
New Year's Eve parties.
Germans, Austrians and Finns abroad.
A midnight video call with family.
German class in the last week of December.
How the shapes are drawn
Each pour picks one of 16 figures at random, with a ragged edge and tilt of its own, so no two look the same.
The list of the evening keeps up to 20 pours on this page and clears when you reload.
Good to know
The meanings are folk readings, for fun, not predictions.
The list is not saved anywhere and is not shared.
Tips
- Dim the lights and put the phone on the table, so everyone sees the shadow.
- Let each guest guess the figure before reading it out.
Bleigießen questions
What does a pig mean in Bleigießen?
Money and luck: in German, having a pig means being lucky.
Why is lead no longer used?
Lead is toxic, and the EU stopped the sale of lead pouring sets in 2018; tin and wax replaced it.
When do you do Bleigießen?
On New Year's Eve, usually in the hours before midnight.
Can I pour more than once?
Yes, though by custom the first pour counts.