Driving winter out...

I’ve been looking forward to Carnival time in Germany (often referred to as the fifth season, and referred to as ‘Fastnach’ in the area I’m living in) since I arrived here (can you believe) 9 months ago. It all starts at 11:11am on November 11th, culminating in a week-long street festival leading up to Ash Wednesday (where the rigors of Lent's 40 days of fasting and sacrifice begin) and the highlight of the carnival is massive parades in Cologne, Mainz and Düsseldorf on Rosenmontag.

The whole silly season is really all a bit of a pagan festival that has survived through the generations and is mostly linked to the very old rite of driving out the ghosts of winter, and welcoming spring, using horrifying disguises and lots of noise. It has practically disappeared in Northern Germany. Since Martin Luther's Reformation, Germany is roughly split religiously - with the North and East being primarily Lutheran (Protestant) and the South and West being primarily Roman Catholic. The Protestant Church successfully quashed Fastnach celebrations in the North, but in the South, the Catholic Church was not able to do so, and so the tradition lives on (particularly in the Black Forest areas) the Alpine region of Austria and in German speaking parts of France and Switzerland.

Parking seems to be a bit of a problem in Mainz

Many theorists also believe the origin of the carnival is a 'farewell' to meat... a preparation for the fasting that has occurred just before Easter since the third and fourth centuries. So basically they needed to use up all the remaining meat and animal products before the fasting season. For those not in the know: during the forty days of Lent, faithful Catholics are asked to adhere to many severe restrictions upon eating, drinking and sexuality, so no wonder they needed a bit of a shindig first!

So with all that in mind I was supposed to go to Cologne, the centre of it all for Carnival in Germany, with James and some of his friends for the weekend. But unfortunately they didn’t end up going and I was as sick as a dog in bed anyway, running backwards and forwards to the toilet to throw up all day, not fun. The next day, still feeling pretty miserable and weak in the knees, but thankfully alive I dragged myself down to the parade in Wiesbaden.

Bush getting a bit of Justice

The parade was very long - much longer than any parade I have ever seen. I'm sure it went on for at least a good two hours. It was up to float 80 I think when I left for sushi. There were so many different types of costumed groups, mostly different music clubs and sports groups coming in from all the small towns and cities close to Wiesbaden all decked out in impressive costumes. Lots of floats threw out sweets, and small presents, many had very arty political messages and some floats threw out sponges, but I’m not sure what the meaning behind that was.

The costumes weren’t just for the people in the parade either, lots and lots of people in the crowd were just as equally dressed up, adults just as much as kids. There was a very cute little Pipi Longstockings beside me (a very popular choice for girls aged 2 to 5), sitting up on her mum’s shoulders. And to my left was an exceptional annoying girl who would push me out of the way, and grab sweets at my feet, or dart out on to the road and snatch whatever was thrown from the various floats. Often her mother would force her to run down the road to follow the floats that seemed especially generous. Right behind me was a big bunch of loud, crazy of Italians all dressed up in wacky costumes, who’d managed to get a prime spot on top of a large concrete block, perfect spot to get the attention of the sweet throwers. I managed to score several small bags of popcorn, a sponge and lollies without even trying, others had come prepared with massive bags and umbrellas to turn upside down to increase their catch potential - absolute madness.

Poking a bit of fun at Mainz's rival city - my town

Michael, one of Crystals (the old Au Pair) friends kindly invited me to the apartment of a friend of his who was having a party that overlooked the parade in Mainz the following day. I had luckily gotten the day off work, as the family were away skiing for the long weekend in Austria. I dragged Ellie along with me, and we braved the winter cold – her as a rather confused fairy, with devil horns, and me as a sleazy Mexican complete with faux moustache. We met up with two fellow party goers Liz and Chris, and squeezed ourselves on to the train, bursting full of people dressed as clowns, pigs, broccoli heads, wine barrels and cell phones to name a few. Got to Mainz and made our way to the apartment, we were pretty lucky really – we had a prime spot overlooking the parade and didn’t have to fight for space with the other 700,000 parade goers. If I thought Wiesbaden’s parade was long, I was in for a shock, Mainz’s parade felt like it was never going to end, but it was on a much more grandeur scale and had lots of crazy characters, and pretty impressive floats. And of course 30 minutes after the last float had passed us, the ever efficient Germans had cleaned the street, and you could barely tell of the festivities that had gone on a few moments before. All of Michael’s friends treated us really well, and it was nice to hang out with some actual Germans for a change, it’s very easy to get stuck in the expat world. We got home just on the brink of dark, even though we could have stayed much longer.

Ahh so thats whats in all those yummy German sausages!

So where to from here, hmmm? I’ve been offered a job teaching two groups of kids English in a small village close to Wiesbaden, and possibly some one on one stuff as well, so looking forward to some extra cash rolling in. Also I am sure most of you know by now but I’ll tell you again anyway …. I’m moving to Vancouver in June!! Yup, I’m packing my little bags and setting off for a new adventure when my Visa here runs out. Don’t have a job, anywhere to live or know anyone for that matter but it will all work itself out in time I’m sure. But until then, I’m going to enjoy these next three months. Hopefully I’ll pop over to Belgium in March, before my sister moves back to NZ, and still got my big road trip around the South of Germany, Austria and Switzerland to look forward to in Easter. In other news, my brother has actually moved out of home, and gone to Uni, never thought I’d see the day! And my cousin Tim has announced his engagement, so congratulations cuz! So everyone else, please drop me a line and let me know what you’re up to!