James's Blarg: Karneval weekend

I'm not as good at keeping up with my blog as I thought I would be. Sorry.

Anywho, Karneval was over a month ago. But man, that was quite the weekend.

Karneval is actually referred to around here as a fifth season. You have Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter, and Karneval. It gets kicked of on November 11th and then dials down through Advent season until mid to late January, when things start ramping up again. I started seeing business people in suits and stick-on tattoos of Cologne's coat of arms on their cheeks, strange wigs and costumes on the trains, and an auto dealer on my commute was turned into a party venue of sorts right around the turn of the month. The official Karneval weekend was February 16th-21st, as a kickoff for the beginning of Lent. It's much bigger than Halloween here. Everyone, and I really do mean everyone, gets into the spirit. Cologne is pretty much the epicenter of Karneval celebrations and is probably the most famous place in Germany that celebrates it.

"Weiberfastnacht," or the Thursday before Fat Tuesday, is traditionally a day when women sort of take over. In the Cologne-Bonn area especially, this is a big tradition. To put it a bit dramatically, they run around with scissors and are allowed to cut off men's ties in exchange for a kiss. They also storm the town halls and I guess are given control for the day starting around 11:11am. I personally didn't see much of this as I was in school and wasn't wearing a tie since I like the few that I brought with me.

The nice thing is that school gets out early, at about 11:30. Nobody wants to do any work anyway, so the morning is devoted to costume contests and singing and playing games. After the teachers kicked all the students out, we had our own party in the teachers' lounge, complete with music and treats and some Kölsch, which as I may have said before is the special brew of beer only made here in Cologne. From there, a group of us made our way from Bergisch Gladbach into Cologne to continue the celebrating at one of the Karneval parties on the Western side of town. Over the course of the afternoon and evening, more teachers and friends joined us there, and we spent the entire time dancing and drinking and having a great time.

The idea of Karneval is pretty much to go nuts before Lent starts, and nobody holds back. It's almost like normal society gets paused for a weekend and then starts again once it's over. There are people dressed up everywhere, the beer is flowing, and there are all kinds of songs in the local dialect, which also happens to be called Kölsch. The music isn't always bad, but neither is it always good. The biggest problem for me was that the dialect is so different than High German that I basically understood about 2%. I got "Kölle alaaf!" which is like "Hooray Cologne!" or "long live Cologne!" This was said a lot. A lot a lot. There's a whole song devoted to this idea. In general, the music is quite festive, and when mixed among other music that lends itself better to dancing, it's really fun. I also suspect that having a beer or two helps the music be more palatable.

On Friday I went out again, this time with a big group of other Foreign Language Assistants, many of them Fulbrighters, some from Britain, and a few from places like France or Spain. We did pretty much the same thing, but instead of going to a specific party, where you have to pay a cover charge to get into, we bar-hopped around the Altstadt, which I think was more fun. It wasn't as loud, and when it got too crowded or we wanted some fresh air, we just moved. There were also opportunities for snacks. Several street vendors set up around the area selling lots of delicious treats. I discovered a love for french fries covered in mayonnaise, which I never thought I'd learn to like.

Saturday and Sunday were relatively quiet for me, although there were more parties and parades going on all over the city. In fact, on Sunday I was woken up by all the floats and people lining up in the street in front of my apartment for the parade in Porz, the area of Cologne I live in. Since I was up and had nothing better to do, I walked down toward the Porz city hall to check it out.

My front yard on Sunday.

I think the parades are what the kids live for. The floats are designed with big shelves along the top that are filled with candy of all kinds, from hard fruit candy to miniature Mars bars to actual boxes of chocolates. And they don't just toss a piece here or there; they actually scoop up armfuls and pretty much just fling it willy-nilly at the crowd, which presses closer and closer to the floats as the parade goes on. Everybody waves their hands in the air and screams "Kamelle! Kamelle!" which is Kölsch for "Karamelle" which is German for caramels or candy. The people on the floats, walking, or riding horses in the parade also have flowers, which they throw or give to the ladies for a kiss.

In Porz

Monday was the big day for parades. It's Rosenmontag (Rose Monday) and the biggest parade in Cologne goes through the entire downtown area, meaning that the trains and roads are a complete mess. I met up with my friends Robert and Christine in time to catch the beginning of the parade as it was passing through the shopping district. We stayed for a few hours, but it was still cold and I had lost the feeling in my feet and was starting to lose it above the ankles too so we went to get some food. There are lots of clubs that to my understanding exist purely for the Karneval season and parades. They have awesome costumes and floats, and there are marching bands and people on horses and gymnasts and it goes on forever. I think the parade this year lasted about 7 hours.