It's Carnival season. America knows it as Mardi Gras, although even then it's primarily known in New Orleans. Here in Germany it's known by Karneval (in Rheinland), Fasching (in southern Germany and Austria), or Fastnacht (Swabia mostly). The festival times technically begin on November 11 at 11:11 but really the celebrations occur towards the end in the week leading up to Ash Wednesday. It all starts the Thursday before, when Weiberfastnacht ("women's carnival") encourages women cut the ties off of men and take charge. Men, being aware of the holiday, usually refrain from wearing a tie or choose a particularly old one. Then there are parades over the weekend leading into Rose Monday, when the famous parade takes place in Cologne. There's a great informational website if you want to learn even more about the holiday. This past Sunday, I went with some friends to the nearby parade in Rottenburg. It was such a cool experience! Having never experienced Carnival before, I had no idea what to expect. This parade was more traditional than others, with witches and demons. There were many incredible costumes and masks, and the energy of the crowd was just as huge as the energy of those in the parade. Even the interspersed marching bands dressed the part in fantastic costumes and themes. There was a call and response throughout the parade that consisted of "Narri!" followed by "Narro!" which one of the masked witches was kind enough to teach me before melting back into the procession (he made me scream it back to him before he would leave). Right at the beginning of the parade, before any expectations were set, a child from the procession walked by me, stopped, glared into my eyes, and before I could process why this child looked so evil, she threw an enormous handful of paper confetti directly into my face! It took me by such surprise and made me feel like I was really part of the parade experience. My friends and I all burst out laughing and it really set a great mood for the rest of the parade. After that initial confetti experience, we saw plenty more people get paper confetti or straw rubbed into their hair or thrown into their face. In fact, some troupes of witches walked by with baskets of it, carrying people (mostly young girls) off and tossing them in before letting them wander back to their position on the sidelines. Some walked by with paint sticks to mark children's faces. Many threw out shouts or cackles, running along the sidelines trying to scare or excite the kids. It was incredible to see the age variety present. There was a 5 or 6 year old girl standing directly opposite us who devotedly stood with her face painted and her hands out in search of candy, shouting "Narri! Narro!" to every passing parader, while a couple of people down, a grandfather with his grandson got his cap removed and confetti dumped on his head and into his jacket before the witch replaced the cap on his head. Laughter and excitement was in the air for the full hour and a half procession. It was an unique and fun experience!
2 Comments
|
AuthorJust a girl trying to get by in Germany for a year and having adventures along the way! Archives
April 2017
Categories |