Kate's Description of Duesseldorf Karneval:

Imagine a cross between Halloween, Mardi Gras and Oktoberfest. It's a seasonal holiday as ubiquitous as Christmas and the Rheinland Germans celebrate it in a big way. It's the same Catholic holiday as Mardi Gras, which is basically the time to party like mad before you enter Lent, the 40 days of fasting and austerity (when Jesus was wandering round the desert) before Easter. It's 6 days of craziness which is the best German attempt I know of to dispell those myths that Germans are all seriousness.

It all begins on Thursday, Altweiberfastnacht. This means something like 'old woman's fasting night'. They're not fasting, though. This is the day the women in the city take power: they storm the city hall, take the keys from the mayor and govern the city for a day. What would happen if the mayor were a woman?? not sure... the mayor here's a man... the current Chancellor of the country is a woman, so I guess she just kept the keys to the Parliament for the day. When they're finished with their storming business, the women roam the streets and snip off the tie of any man so careless as to wear one. (Symbolism, anyone?) After 11:11am the vast majority of the city get into a costume and leave work to go to the Altstadt (old city) and drink beer. Skipping work seems to be generally accepted and expected in Duesseldorf.






The party generally continues until Saturday, when there is a race in the afternoon of men dressed up as virgins (blonde braids, drag, high heels) who race around Königs Alle, the chi-chi historic shopping boulevard. You can see a shot here of the Cartier store boarding up its windows on Saturday before the onslaught.

Sunday, there is costumed chaos and celebrations on Königs Allee, also known as the "Kö". I met up at noon with a friend from work, a big group of her friends and family, and brought Tony and our neighbour Mariza along. There were 14 of us all dressed up as polar bears. Here are a couple photos for your perusal! The streets are all blocked off and people just... be... there. They bring their whole family, there are food and drink stalls, and musicians - we danced our butts off to two Maracatu/ Samba bands!!








Rosenmontag, 'Rose Monday' is almost a regional holiday (Tony had it off; one of my two employers gave it to me off) and the big parade. A couple of shots below of the parade, too. There are marching bands, horses, more costumes, lots of candy and other random things like toys and sausages thrown, and cool papier mache floats with political commentary on them. Tony and I were exhausted by Monday and went to the parade for half an hour then fled!







Veilchendienstag, 'Violet Tuesday' things are almost back to normal. In Canada this is called Shrove Tuesday or Pancake Tuesday. I remember churches on Salt Spring Island doing big pancake breakfasts on that morning, which is the only sign I've seen of this holiday in Canada. I wonder if the 'roses are red, violets are blue' phrase is connected to Karneval somehow?


Aschermittwoch, 'Ash Wednesday' is the first official day of LENT. And beans. :- ) (We've given up meat as an experiment during Lent this year. Hoping to explore new vegetarian recipes and challenge ourselves!) Does anyone have any other Lenten givings-up they’d like share with us?? Post a comment!