why Karneval really is the German Halloween.

I know I've compared Karneval to Halloween in the past because of the whole tradition of wearing costumes. Well, after finally experience Karnival first hand, I can safely say that - aside from happening all day instead of only first when the sun goes down - I stand wholeheartedly by my original assertion. 

See there is this parade (ok, not exactly Halloweeny, but bear with me). By the time we got there at 1pm the parade had already started on the far side of the city. It was supposed to go until 2:30 pm, so we tried to find a place among the masses to get a good view. This proved much more difficult than expected, and we ended up finding a good view that was unfortunately very removed from the actual parade. 

After a good while of enjoying the parade from this vantage point, we decided to head down into the crowds, expecting the parade to end shortly anyway.

Little did we know this was apparently a never-ending parade. I don't know where the city of Cologne's website got it's information, but this parade did not end at 2:30. In fact, it was still going strong when worked our way up to the front lines around 4pm. And that's where things got exciting (and here comes the Halloween-ish part).

The candy. Oh the candy. I know people throw candy at parades in the US, but this was like that on steroids. I'm talking entire chocolate bars, even complete boxes of chocolate. Not just thrown here and there into the crowd but seriously continuously chucked among the masses. If you looked away for 1 second you were at risk of chocolate to the face - trust me, that's how I caught a few of my pieces. And it wasn't just candy. The occasional stuffed animal was tossed in, and all kinds of individual flowers. I was pretty proud of my catches. And the people living in the buildings with windows facing the parade found a pretty ingenious method for collecting the goods.

I also loved that even the Policemen across from us were stocking up on the goods.

We stood there for at least an hour watch the parade - the floats, the marching bands, the costumes - catching candy, and just enjoying the whole atmosphere.

Finally, the parade that was supposed to end at 2:30  drew to an end around 7. And as we headed back to the train station that night - in costume, with bags full of candy collected throughout the day - I couldn't help but smile for finally having the Halloween that I'd missed for the past 2 years!

what do Penguins, Mario, a cross-dressing Heidi and Jesus have in common?

You can find them all in Cologne during Karnival! 

I know spoiled the whole costumes found at Karneval post by posting about the coolest costume there yesterday. But there were a lot of good runners up. 

My favorite - mostly because of the complete randomness factor - was a Mario walking alongside a cigarette smoking Jesus with a beer in his belt. 

We also kept running into the same pair of cross-dressing Heidis for the first hour or so. I was only able to snap a picture of the one, and I know it's not necessarily the most original or exciting costume, but there was something so hilarious about this pair and their complete nonchalance about the whole dressed in dirndl drag thing. 

There were, of course, the creative, culturally relevant, and hilarious costumes to be found about. Including these meme guys. Loved it. 

But, when all else failed, there was always the safe fall-back plan of onesies with an animal hood. That's what about 90% of everyone in cologne had. And I can't deny, it was elegant in it's simplicity! 

how I ended up in at least 10 random facebook albums

When my friend and I bought our Karneval costumes last week, we were super excited, but honestly didn't expect them to be anything special to the tried and true Karneval-goers. I mean, we got them completely pre-made at standard department store on sale. 

 

Then we got to Cologne looking like this.

Trust me, we were not nearly the most intense people there - not even close. But I mean, a barrel of mustard (Senf in German) and a bratwurst on our heads... you have to admit we were looking pretty good! 

 

And much to our surprise, the people of Cologne noticed us too. We ended up taking pictures with countless people (we lost count around 10) who loved the costumes, and even more gave us an approving laugh of acknowledgement as we passed through the masses. All I could think is "we're gonna be on so many facebook profiles tomorrow!" 

Did I mention how practical our little Senf barrel was as a costume? First, you only have to slip on over whatever you want to wear. Second, any purse or bag fits securely inside out of harms way. 

 

The crowning moment of the evening, for me though, came later in the day when I realized my dinner also matched my costume! 

And it's great to know I'll get at least a good 10 years worth Halloween costumes out of this! 

p.s. Extra Scharf means extra spicy

A week from today

Next Monday is a big day in the Karneval season. What's Karneval, you ask? Clearly you didn't read this November post.  Basically, all you need to know is that it is the German version of Mardi Gras, only with more clothes and more time. 

Even though the official Karneval period carries on for a bit, the main events are really on Rosenmontag. This means Shrove Monday, according to Wikipedia, though I'm certain I've never heard or said that before in my life. So my friend and I, excited to immerse ourselves in some German culture, are planning on heading down to Cologne - the center of the party - a week from today. We even picked up some AH-mazing costumes today (Karneval is to Germany what Halloween is to Americans*). I don't wanna spoil the surprise too much, so consider this a little teaser.

p.s. The slippers aren't part of the costume, but aren't they amazing, too?!

*only less slutty

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!