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! 

So there were 3 bananas walking down the street...

No really...

So you might remember I mentioned something called Fasching in an earlier post. If you're really good, you'll remember that I explained it's the time leading up to Ash Wednesday - sort of like a prolonged Mardi Gras. I basically of consider Fasching the German Halloween. I mean, really, the only thing the two holidays have in common is the tradition of wearing costumes. But that's close enough for me! 

In some parts of Germany, Fasching is a HUGE celebration over several days (Cologne is the most well-known city for Fasching). In Forchheim, however, we pretty much just had a parade. But everyone was still dressed up and I got to march (..."march") with the music club! 

Every year the band has a theme for their costumes and this year was Pirates. Well, since that doesn't really lend itself to originality (do I want to go as a pirate... or a pirate?), we had to get really creative. Luckily I got adopted by some of my friends in band to take part in a group costume... as a pirate ship! I have to admit, having to march with my actual horn while holding the music and wearing a box was no easy task!

It was fun to see the other costumes in band. There were, of course, plenty of pirates, but there was another ship, a few barrels of rum (my fave, I think) and I'm pretty sure I saw a Calypso from the third PotC movie. The floats in the parade were pretty good too. 

Sometimes they were basically just a party on wheels

and others had more obvious themes. 

This was the day before I left for Edinburgh, so I'm really glad I didn't miss it! I thought it was really fun to experience something uniquely German. If I'm in Germany for another Fasching, I really want to make it up to Cologne to see the "real" party 

I got you this Mardi Gras donut...

That's right. 
 

Here in Germany, the traditional treat for the Mardi Gras time (which is actually celebrated for several days known as Fasching or Karnival) is a donut! 

Of course they're not called donuts. They're called Krapfen. A normal krapfen is covered in powdered sugar, usually with a rosehip filling. But there are several variations of this delicious treat - covered with normal sugar, lemon icing, chocolate icing, sprinkles, and pretty much any filling from fruit to liquor to chocolate. 

These little babies popped up in the bakeries on January 7 (the Christmas season isn't officially over until January 6) and the best part is, they usually cost about 75 cents.