Learn Hardcore German: An Silvester schauen wir das Feuerwerk im Garten. - On New Year’s Eve we watch the fireworks in the garden.

With ordinary days, German normally says am Montag (an dem Montag) – the article is kept and an + dem is contracted to am.
With many holiday names that behave like proper nouns (no article), German tends to drop the article and just use an:
- an Weihnachten – at / on Christmas
- an Ostern – at / on Easter
- an Silvester – on New Year’s Eve

Am Silvester (= an dem Silvester) sounds odd because you normally don’t use an article with the holiday name Silvester. Instead you would say:

an Silvester or zu Silvester (both common)
am Silvesterabend (“on New Year’s Eve evening”), where the article is normal and therefore am is fine.

Zu Silvester is also very common and almost interchangeable here; it has more the sense of “on/at that festive occasion” than the literal “on that day”, but in practice both are possible.

What case is Silvester in after an, and why is there no article?

With time expressions, an normally takes the dative case.

You can’t see the dative here because Silvester has no article and no adjective ending, but you can test it by expanding the phrase:

an diesem Silvester – clearly dative (not an diesen Silvester)

Holiday names like Weihnachten, Ostern, Silvester, Pfingsten often appear without an article in such expressions:

an Silvester
zu Ostern
an Weihnachten

If you add something that forces an article, then it shows:

an dem letzten Silvester, an diesem Silvester – dative after an.

So the underlying structure is an + dative, but because Silvester is used like a proper name without article here, the dative ending is invisible.

Why is the verb order schauen wir and not wir schauen?

German has a strict verb‑second (V2) rule in main clauses: the finite verb must be in second position in the sentence.

Basic order:
- Wir schauen das Feuerwerk im Garten.
  Here wir is first, schauen is second.
If you move a time expression like An Silvester to the front for emphasis, it takes first position:
- An Silvester – 1st position
- schauen – must still be 2nd position → so it comes before wir
- wir das Feuerwerk im Garten – the rest follows

So you get:
An Silvester schauen wir das Feuerwerk im Garten.

In English, fronting a time expression doesn’t force inversion (“On New Year’s Eve we watch…”), but in German it does.

Could I also say Wir schauen an Silvester das Feuerwerk im Garten? Is there any difference?

Yes, that’s grammatically fine too:

Wir schauen an Silvester das Feuerwerk im Garten.

Both sentences mean the same thing. The difference is mainly emphasis and information structure:

An Silvester schauen wir … puts extra emphasis on the time (“As for New Year’s Eve — that’s when we watch…”).
Wir schauen an Silvester … starts with wir, which can feel slightly more neutral: “We watch the fireworks on New Year’s Eve in the garden.”

German allows relatively free order for elements like time, place, object, as long as the finite verb stays in 2nd position. Changing the order tweaks what feels foregrounded but doesn’t change the core meaning.

Why is schauen used here? Could I use sehen, anschauen, or gucken instead?

All of these are related but not identical:

schauen – “to look, to watch”. Common in southern Germany, Austria, Switzerland. With a direct object, it can mean “watch”:
- das Feuerwerk schauen – watch the fireworks (colloquial, especially in the south)
sehen – “to see”. More neutral and often more passive:
- das Feuerwerk sehen – see the fireworks (you happen to see them, or just perceive them)
(sich) etwas anschauen / ansehen – “to watch / take a look at something” (more clearly intentional):
- Wir schauen uns das Feuerwerk an.
- Wir sehen uns das Feuerwerk an.
gucken – very common colloquial word for “look/watch” in many regions (esp. the north-west):
- Wir gucken das Feuerwerk im Garten.

In your sentence, schauen is perfectly fine and idiomatic in regions where schauen is the normal verb for “watch”. More universally neutral options would be:

Wir sehen uns das Feuerwerk im Garten an.
Wir schauen uns das Feuerwerk im Garten an.

Do I need uns, like in Wir schauen uns das Feuerwerk an? Why is it missing here?

Both are possible, but there’s a nuance:

Wir schauen das Feuerwerk (im Garten).
→ colloquial, especially where schauen is common; treats schauen much like English “watch”, with das Feuerwerk as a simple direct object.
Wir schauen uns das Feuerwerk an.
→ more standard structure with the separable verb anschauen and reflexive uns. Literally, “We look at the fireworks.”

In many everyday contexts, people shorten sich etwas anschauen to just etwas schauen, especially with TV, films, fireworks, etc.:

Wir schauen einen Film.
Wir schauen das Feuerwerk.

So the version without uns is normal conversational German, though learners are often taught the reflexive version first because it’s more “textbook standard” across regions.

Why is it das Feuerwerk (singular) when English usually says “fireworks” (plural)?

In German, Feuerwerk is grammatically neuter singular:

das Feuerwerk – the firework(s) display
plural: die Feuerwerke – multiple separate displays

Often, das Feuerwerk refers to the whole show as a single event, even if it contains many individual explosions. So:

Wir schauen das Feuerwerk im Garten.
→ We watch the fireworks (display) in the garden.

If you really want to stress that there are several separate displays, you can use the plural:

In der Stadt gibt es drei Feuerwerke. – There are three separate fireworks displays in the city.

Note also that in this sentence das Feuerwerk is the direct object in the accusative case:
schauen (wen/was?) das Feuerwerk.

What exactly does im Garten mean here, and why is it im and not in den Garten?

im is the contraction of in dem:

im Garten = in dem Garten – “in the garden”

The preposition in can take dative (location, “where?”) or accusative (direction, “where to?”):

dative (location):
- Wir sind im Garten. – We are in the garden.
- Wir schauen das Feuerwerk im Garten. – We watch the fireworks in the garden (our location).
accusative (direction):
- Wir gehen in den Garten. – We go into the garden.

In your sentence, im Garten answers “Where are we while we’re watching?”, so it uses dative: in dem Garten → im Garten.

Does im Garten mean that the fireworks are in the garden, or that we are in the garden?

Grammatically, im Garten just gives a place for the activity schauen, and German doesn’t force a clear distinction:

Wir schauen das Feuerwerk im Garten.

Natural interpretation in context:
We are in the garden watching the fireworks (which may be in the sky above, outside the garden, etc.). That’s typically how native speakers would understand it.

If you specifically wanted to say that we are in the garden (as opposed to the fireworks), you could make that more explicit:

Im Garten schauen wir das Feuerwerk. – Emphasises our location.
Wir sind im Garten und schauen das Feuerwerk.

If you wanted to say that the fireworks themselves are in the garden, context or wording would usually clarify that, e.g.:

Wir machen im Garten ein Feuerwerk. – We set off fireworks in the garden.

Why is the present tense schauen used, even though this could be talking about the future?

German very often uses the present tense to talk about future actions, especially when there’s a time expression in the sentence:

Morgen fahren wir nach Berlin. – We’re going to Berlin tomorrow.
Nächste Woche schreibe ich die Prüfung. – I’m taking the exam next week.
An Silvester schauen wir das Feuerwerk im Garten. – We’ll watch / we’re watching the fireworks in the garden on New Year’s Eve.

Because An Silvester clearly indicates a future time, the present tense schauen is enough; you don’t need werden schauen. The Futur I (wir werden das Feuerwerk schauen) is used more for emphasis, formality, or when the time is not otherwise clear.

Why are Silvester, Feuerwerk, and Garten capitalized?

German capitalizes:

All nouns:
- das Feuerwerk – noun
- der Garten – noun
Proper names, including names of holidays:
- Silvester – the name of the day (New Year’s Eve)

So in this sentence, all three are capitalized because they are either nouns or proper nouns (holiday names).