Pull an all-nighter

Published on October 11, 2007

Tower of BabelSociety

On the evening of 9 October, Paris celebrated it's so-called nuit blanche (white night): an artistic trip of discovery through a city transformed with its street art, live music, projections, poetry performances and open-air video installations, up until the early hours of the morning. Six other European cities have already white night-ed this year - notte bianca in Rome, noche blanco in Madrid in September and Bucharest with their first nopti albe on 24 September.

Germany came up with the night-long concept first though, with their lange Nacht der Museen (long night of the museums' in 1997. If you're heading home in the morning light after a night out in Berlin, Hamburg or Frankfurt, the Germans say you've durchgemacht (or durchzecht - more archaic), the night. The Danes can sympathise with a term literally meaning to undergo or pass through - feste igennem. Berlin revellers used to describe having to go far to party as going bis in die Puppen (until the puppets) - a reference to the typical marble statues of Brandenburg and Prussian leaders which stand in Berlin's 'Tiergarten', at a distance from the city centre. The Poles are also tireless swinger-of-legs, saying they spent przehula/ przebalowa ca noc (all night at the ball). For younger Poles the biaa noc (white night) mostly refers to the final night of a special holiday camp, when everybody parties like there is no tomorrow.

However, the hardworking English don't have alternative names for an all-nighter. Their eyes are more likely to close when they pull an all-nighter - meaning having to stay up all night working instead of partying as the other hardcore Europeans do.

Translated from Bis in die Puppen