Carnival

I actually only know Carnival from TV. We don’t have it here in Hamburg. What’s it like where you are? Do you celebrate it? Are there parades? Tell me a little bit.

Best regards

Sandra

Here in our town (near Esslingen/Stuttgart), there’s a carnival group. So on Thursday, there’s the storming of City Hall in the town center. On Tuesday, there’s a children’s carnival. That’s all we have here, so it’s pretty low-key.

One town over is a real carnival stronghold—they’ve been partying nonstop since Thursday, and today there’s a big parade. Then, two towns further in the other direction, it’s even crazier with the carnival revelers.

Otherwise, Carnival hasn’t really caught on. The big cities haven’t had parades for a long time.

My grandson loves dressing up and really looks forward to Carnival. At preschool, they’ve been allowed to come in costume every day since Thursday through Tuesday.

Here in southeastern Bavaria, we have the “Gaudiwurm” (that’s what the parade is called). We live in a village, and it takes place on Sunday.

I’m not really into Carnival (anymore), since I was born in Hesse but grew up up north. It’s great for kids, though, because they love dressing up anyway.

I do enjoy watching good carnival speeches, though—it’s just all the fuss around it that isn’t really my thing.

We also have a carnival group here in Bietigheim-Bissingen.
There’s a big parade in Stuttgart next Tuesday.
For me, it was something completely new, since I moved here from Saxony 20 years ago

I’m from Wolfsburg and I’m not really into Carnival.
In Braunschweig, Lower Saxony’s biggest Carnival parade takes place every year on the Sunday before Rosenmontag, but I’ve never been there.
I do watch the Rosenmontag parades on TV, though—when I have time. I always think the themed floats are great. The ones from Düsseldorf, in particular, always take a very biting jab at the events of the past year, and I really enjoy that. 

Gaudiwurm! That’s going to be my word of the year!!!!! Aaamazing!
(I’m from Hanover, guaranteed to be dialect-free, and that’s soooo boring… I can’t do any dialect at all, not even imitate one, boo hoo…)
And no, there’s really nothing going on here in Hamburg, as Sandra already said.

Hi, I live right in the thick of it, in Gelsenkirchen, in the Ruhr region. Here in Gelsenkirchen alone, there are 8 Carnival clubs. Things have been in full swing here since November 11th. But of course, it really kicks off on Weiberfastnacht. So yes, we’re right in the middle of it here. Every year on Rosenmontag, there’s a big parade with up to 100 participants—you can easily spend a good three hours that day just watching in amazement. For years now, I’ve preferred watching Carnival on TV; I’m not really the carnival type.

I live in the southern Black Forest near the Swiss border. Around here, every town—no matter how small—has its own carnival guild. (Gletschergeister, Beerewieber, Dichelbohrer, and many more.) People needed something to do back in the day during proper winters (with snow starting in November) and in such an isolated area.
From November 11 onward, the carnival revelers are regularly out and about at parades all over the region. Last Friday was the Witches’ Ball, the week before that the Broom-Binders’ Ball, the guild evening... even the high school has its own party here. On Rosenmontag, there are parades everywhere, with themed floats that poke fun at the towns and communities and so on.
I used to enjoy taking part—back then, Fasnacht was still fun with the traditional band and other clubs. These days, I don’t take part anymore; to me, it’s all become too stupid—binge drinking, women (aged 14 and up), even married ones, are treated as fair game, and people who can’t even say "hello" the rest of the year suddenly talk to you.
Many people also take time off afterward when the Morgenstreich takes place in Switzerland. That’s a few days after Ash Wednesday.
Best regards, Dani

Thank you so much for your replies. I hope everyone going to the parades has a great time and that it doesn’t rain.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to watch the parades on TV tomorrow. I have to work tomorrow. I work at a restaurant near the Elbphilharmonie. And it’s definitely going to be pretty crowded there. There are tons of “Carnival refugees” in the city. 

In our city (the Reformed Canton of Bern, bordering Lucerne and Solothurn, both of which are Catholic), Fasnacht has a long tradition (with interruptions during both world wars): It starts with masked balls, then on Friday (when the Catholic towns are already in Lent) there’s a patrons’ evening with Guggenmusik and satirical verses, on Saturday the opening of Fasnacht (the city council members are hoisted up in a basket and have to catch fish), and in the evening there’s a Guggen spectacle in the city center. Then on Sunday comes the big parade, and Monday belongs to the little revelers with a colorful parade followed by children’s balls. With the Charivari on Tuesday evening, the carnival season comes to an end here as well.
As children, we often marched in the parade on Monday, several times in costumes our mother had sewn and crafted: as cleaning ladies, as a newspaper kiosk (of course, it was quite windy back then!), or as Miss… Our children later participated while in the lower grades of school; our son as a cadet drummer, and that’s when my sewing skills came in handy. Today, I still watch the children’s parade, and sometimes the opening ceremony.

Hi LiebeWolle, I’m also from this “stronghold”... and I really had to chuckle at your post.

Yes, if you like Carnival, you’ll definitely find it here.
There’s a festival tent, a few places where people celebrate, a lot of it takes place in local clubs, and besides the big parade there are even smaller ones, like a children’s parade, for example.

But all in all, things here are still more or less just everyday life, right?

As a kid, of course I thought it was all great—for example, dressing up and catching candy at the parade...

These days, I enjoy people-watching.
I still like going to the parade for that, but I don’t need those parties with far too much alcohol and all the drama that comes with it anymore.
Besides, personally, I can’t stand Carnival music/party hits anymore... it’s just not my kind of music.

But I still have some really fond memories of the Carnival parties in the ’80s at the regular corner pub we used to go to back then....

With that in mind: Helau

Here in the Lower Rhine region, Carnival is also celebrated in a big way. Every village has its own club, and even sports clubs have their own floats and marching groups in the Rosenmontag parade in town. Because of today’s stormy weather, though, it’s still unclear whether the parade will even take place this year. Our daughter wanted to go there with her friends (we’re not really into it and don’t need all the hassle), but if it stays like this, it’ll probably be canceled. They actually wanted to go by bike (about 5–6 km), but not in this storm—since they have to ride through a wooded area, I’d be far too afraid that the girls might be killed by a falling branch.
Even though I’m not a Carnival fan myself, I’d think it was a shame if the parade were canceled.

Yesterday—after a break of several years—we went to the parade in our village again. After half an hour, we called it quits and went home. My ears were really hurting from the terrible and extremely loud music.

Unfortunately, there weren’t any nice floats. Mostly, they were painted wooden booths led by a tractor, with teenagers standing on them the whole time holding beer bottles—and either disco music with heavy bass or those party hits that I don’t like either. I feel the same way as Claudia. In between, there were a few walking groups, some of whom were very nicely dressed up. That was the only bright spot.

It’s a shame, really… We then went for a walk in nature so we could breathe again. The peace and quiet did us a world of good.

Well, here in Norway, Carnival isn’t really a thing either. We live a bit out of the way, so there’s nothing going on. It’s absolutely
quiet. I think when you get older, you don’t really need that kind of thing anymore.

We used to go to Carnival events with dancing all the time, and we’d dress up for them. It was always
a lot of fun. But now we prefer peace and quiet and a cozy atmosphere.

For kids, there’s Carnival at schools and preschools, but other than that, I have no idea.
We’d rather do some crocheting and crafts.

We celebrate Carnival here in Bochum, too. The parades can’t quite compare to those in Cologne or Düsseldorf, but the kids definitely have fun.