What I get up to when I'm not online...

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

I live in Germany. They have this wonderful tradition here of having carnival processions and huge parties. Oddly enough, the Carnival Season (locally known as the "fifth season") starts on November 11th, 11:11 a.m. and goes until the last Wednesday in February, but the public festivities don't start until well into January.

What they do is basically this: some of the towns invite carnival groups from other towns to take part in their procession, so there are all kinds of different groups. There are witches, gypsies, demons, devils, marching bands and dancers, all sorts of odd looking costumes, etc. They all march along and do various things - give away food, alcohol, candy; slap people with pigs' bladders, brooms, sticks; scratch, tickle, scare, paint, pour sawdust, wedgie, cackle loudly at people; steal people's shoelaces, hats, shoes; drag people off, dance with them, stick them in tubs full of sawdust or confetti or straw, imprison them in specially built carts, wrap them in foil, etc. In short, it's a lot of fun.

Tonight was one of these processions - the earliest one around these parts. I took my daughter and my niece along, and we were all dressed up which meant we got past the controls for free (usually you have to pay to see this, unless you are dressed up nice). I managed to take a lot of pictures in between dodging all kinds of attacks, and we were even invited to walk along with one group who liked our witch costumes.

Thought I'd share:

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

Some more...

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

More to come....

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

No I'm not done yet....

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

This is the last. Really.

[Zem Vymes]

At its roots, it is very similar to Mardi Gras in the USA. Mardi Gras, at least on the southeast gulf riviera (ie, New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Mississippi & Alabama shores are the only places it's really taken seriously) involves a lot of parades, including masked participants on floats (krewes), in which a lot of gifts are given out. The usual form of this is either bead necklaces and/or medallions, but many other things can be given out, depending on the krewes. A lot of the smaller communities get more specialized things when they celebrate. The masks aren't usually as elaborate as yours, but they're ususally some manner of sequined or glittered origami with feathers and other such things. Face painting is also popular.

Most of the parade attendees don't do this, but they are certainly involved in the festivities. We eat a type of cinnamon pastry called a King Cake with french coffee, which is in the traditional colors of gold, purple, and green. Somewhere within is a very small baby figurine, which I think represents the Christ child. Whoever ends up with the piece having the child inside has to buy the next cake. This tradition goes back to the French upper class and their debutante balls.

Honestly, this seems very similar, and you can find many other areas that have similar types of events. Mardi Gras has either gotten a blessing or curse from the extra publicity. As much as rampant booze and topless girls are a part of the New Orleans experience, the farther away you get from that city, the more you'd probably recognize things ;)

You guys do seem to have had a blast, so that is awesome to see. What part of Germany are you in? I have friends who live in Hamm, actually just got done spending some time with them, since they came to visit my unannounced. I need to ask them about this :)

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

We're down in the South, maybe an hour to the French border. It's close to Stuttgart, and just at the edge of the Black Forest.

I decided to go investigate if one could become a member of one such carnival group but it costs a fortune to buy one of the masks, and you can't be a member if you don't have a mask.... *sigh*

The rampant booze sounds extremely familiar.... the topless girls not. We just have a traditional burning of a straw witch effigy at the end of Carnival, to signify that the Winter has now been driven out of the country. This whole tradition has its roots in a lot of odd heathen ceremonies.

Oh yeah - and the thursday of the last week, everyone had better not go anywhere wearing a tie to his suit or shirt, because he's most likely to have it cut off. Another tradition.

[Dasquian Belargic]

traditional burning of a straw witch effigy

I'm getting mental images of The Wicker Man, here.

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

Heheheehe.....

[Zem Vymes]

We're down in the South, maybe an hour to the French border. It's close to Stuttgart, and just at the edge of the Black Forest.


Anywhere near Tuttlingen? My last job was a materials manager, and did a lot of business with a firm around that area.


I decided to go investigate if one could become a member of one such carnival group but it costs a fortune to buy one of the masks, and you can't be a member if you don't have a mask.... *sigh*

Sounds familiar. The Krewes here are very long-term clubs, and it's almost one of those things that you can only get in if you know people who know people. It's also expensive and to some degree political. I know a friend who tried to do it, and didn't get in.


The rampant booze sounds extremely familiar.... the topless girls not. We just have a traditional burning of a straw witch effigy at the end of Carnival, to signify that the Winter has now been driven out of the country. This whole tradition has its roots in a lot of odd heathen ceremonies.

One thing I remember for ours is that there are a lot of other groups who get involved. We have high school bands and performers who get to join, and something weird involving people who collect money for the poor, but they carry some crazy gas powered torches. I don't exactly know the story there.

I know that at least in New Orleans, a lot of the parades are named for classical gods and goddesses. I recall Bacchus and Endymion in particular.

[Tri'ahna Zylary]

Tuttlingen is a bit further south again. Maybe an hour away from here - but it's the same region, yes.

The clubs here aren't that bad - they just politely inform you that if you don't have the money to buy yourself the necessary costumes, you don't need to bother trying to join.

The normal processions during daytime also have political groups walking along. They typically have special wagons or platforms on wheels that have a theme or something. And schools can participate too, but they have to meet certain standards. Sometimes it's just silly anyway. That type of stuff you'd usually find in the big cities that don't have their own carnival clubs and can't attract enough others.

You could look on my private gallery (http://nyahalcyon.net/gallery/index.php?cat=4) for more pictures about all this - there are three years' worth of carnival pictures in there