Kultur 10, Amanda Victory

The first article I read was Booze Brothers and at first I didn't find it that surprising. Besides the religious differences that are tied with the holiday in German I kind of expected there to be beer involved as well. One thing I did find interesting was that it is purely just for fathers (or middle aged men) rather than their family as well. In America you typically spend the day with your father, do nice things for him or something, but in Germany it seems to be a day for them to let loose and not be bothered by women or kids.
The next article I read was "Dinner for Who?" that is a British skit that is very popular in Germany and at least heard of in Australia. On New Years Eve it is a tradition for families to watch it and I was surprised to learn that most Brits don't even know what it is. I figured it was just a bad movie to them that they maybe didn't want to take credit for but not completely unheard of. Here it is tradition to kiss someone when the ball drops or just get really drunk on New Year, which I don't know if that is also true in Germany, but I expected their New Years Eve rituals to be more along the lines of drinking and going out not watching a skit that they find extremely amusing.
The article I found most useful was Sorry We're Closed. I knew that in the past places like stores and what not were closed on Sundays and there really wasn't much to do besides go to church but I assumed that since that trend has almost completely faded in America the same has happened in other countries. However I learned in Germany it is almost impossible to buy anything on a Sunday. It did mention that they are becoming more relaxed with that law and moving towards just having short open hours on Sundays. Not being able to go grocery shopping one day a week wouldn't be so bad, it seems completely manageable but having banks and stores close early on weekdays as well would be a huge inconvenience. If you had a family and both you and your husband worked how would you ever be able to get errands done? I also wonder if this rule affects other things we take for granted as being open whenever we need them like hospitals. Of course I assume that hospitals don't close, but I wouldn't be shocked if the staff was really low or if they had no patients since most people would be in their homes.