Carnival in Germany

In two day’s time it will be Ash Wednesday (Aschermittwoch in German) and unlike in the UK where everybody eats pancakes on Shrove Tuesday, the Germans don’t use off their eggs, flour and fat, they use off their energy and let their hair down one last time before Lent.

Today is what the Germans call ‘Rosenmontag’ (Rose Monday) , which is the highlight of the carnival season. The Tuesday before Lent is called Faschingsdienstag.  So, to get you in the mood, here are lots of carnival words. The following compound nouns all start with ‘Karneval’, but before the second noun there is an additional ‘s’ to ensure that you can say each noun as one word and not two.

• der Karneval –  carnival
• der Karnevalsartikel – carnvival article/ item
• der Karnevalsumzug (or just Karnevalszug) – carnival procession/ parade
• der Karnevalsverein – carnival association/ club
• der Karnivalsprinz – carnival prince
• die Karnevalsprinzession – carnival princess
• die Karnevalsgesellschaft – carnival society
• die Karnevalshochburg – carnival stronghold
• die Karnevalsmaske – carnival mask
• die Karnevalsparade –  carnival parade
• die Karnevalssitzung –  carnival session/ meeting
• die Karnevalsveranstaltung –  carnival event/ Mardi Gras event
• die Karnevalszeit –  carnival season/ time
• das Karnevalsbrauchtum –  carnival celebration
• das Karnevalskomitee  carnival committee

The Kölner  Karneval and the Düsseldorfer Kaneval are the most known one. The following videos give you an idea how the parades in Cologne and Düsseldorf look like: lots of music, singing dancing and political satire and everybody’s dressed up.

I’m not a big fan of dressing up and carnvival but I do have photographic ‘evidence’ that I have participated at least twice (although not in parades). AND I’m going to be very brave and post those pictures here ☺