Well, hello everyone! Happy Carnival time (Fasching)! It has been a while since the last post, and unfortunately, not a whole lot has been happening. I was sick last week, as a new cold bug seems to have been going around. But now I am back on my feet and ready to go. Where is the party?




Today it was in downtown Frankfurt. As Tuesday is Fat Tuesday, and Wednesday is Ash Wednesday, this weekend is the big celebration before Lent. The celebrations are meant to scare away the evil spirits before we go into Lent. Well, I must say that if I was an evil spirit, I would be scared. All these normally reserved and somewhat quiet Germans were throwing candy around and screaming "Helau!!!" There, as far as I can tell, seems to be no theme or code to the dressing style. It must be colourful, weird and hopefully warm. For some reason, Mexican sombreros and cowboy hats seem to be popular choices. In a pinch, a water can will also work.



I find this tradition to be very nice. In my life, there seems to have always been a long period of duldrum between New Years and Easter or Memorial Day. Naturally, with the exception of Arbor Day. Now, in the middle of a long grey cold wet winter, we have everyone dressing up in colourful clothes and screaming. Not bad. A good way to lift the spirits.



Another interesting tradition of the day is that the mayor hands over the keys to city hall to the Carnival MC. It symbolises the right of everyone to celebrate without fear of a repessive state (allthough it is a bit of joke today). Nevertheless, the tradition continues with some sometimes stark criticism of local and national politicians. This usually takes the form of huge paper mache effigies of the notorious politicos. However, it need not always be politicians. There was also a huge float made making fun of a local lady who brought a noise complaint lawsuit. The legal action was brought against the main square of Frankfurt, asking for the legal right to issue a noise complaint shutting down singers or anyone making noise on the square. The local citizenry seem to be not so happy with this one lady.



As perhaps you can see on the photos, it was a cold day out, and we decided to come back and hole up in our apartment (only a 5 min bike ride away). Now we are watching the parade on the TV and it is still going on. It seems like it takes most of the day to get all the parade participants through.

Until next time,

HELAU!!!