11.11.11

Remember that time I said that Germans didn't understand Halloween the way Americans do? It turns out I was wrong. They just do it at a different time of year. 

Karneval is a festival leading up to Lent. It's kind of like an extended Mardi Gras. If this sounds familiar, it's because I posted about it last year, but in the south they call it Fasching instead of Karneval. Although the main festivities of Karneval happen the week before Ash Wednesday, the Karneval period begins every year on 11/11 at 11:11am. And of course this year was a once in a century opportunity the celebrate on 11/11/11.

The elfte elfte (that's German for eleventh eleventh, which just a quick way to say the eleventh day of the eleventh month) just happened to fall on our last day in Düsseldorf, so after we were released from official conference duties, we made our way into the city center to check out the festivities. And what we encountered can only be described as Halloween meets Oktoberfest. 

The costumes were exactly what you would see on Halloween in the US. 

Some were intense

Some were hilarious

 Some weren't even really costumes

And the indescribably uniquely traditional German pop music (After much thought, that's really the best way I can describe it) was very reminiscent of my time spent in the beer tents at Oktoberfest.

It was a great party, but really only the precursor to the festivities that await in February!