This is long overdue… but definitely deserves the time for its own post.
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| Schillerplatz |
Fastnacht, aka Fasching, Karneval, Mardi Gras…. Is a 6 day event held every year in only three cities in Germany (the largely Catholic areas): Cologne (the biggest celebration), Mainz, and Düsseldorf. I’ve heard a lot of different stories on how it started, why it’s still celebrated, etc. so I think Wikipedia will be better at explaining it!
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| The "characters" of Fastnacht |
From what I was told... Mainz took this time to make fun of the French (who occupied Mainz at the time the event was created) and other political figures. That’s why you’ll see in pictures people dressed in overly exaggerated military uniforms and hats in bright colors. You’ll also see HUGE fake heads of politicians walking around. They also throw these things called “Sendungen” every night, which are basically mock military meetings where everyone sits down to a nice meal and there’s an appointed table who makes hilarious speeches mocking politicians, among other things. Basically, the Catholics wanted a huge last celebration before Lent and combined that with making fun of their people in charge.
Also note that nowhere else in Germany does this. The people in Northern Germany think this celebration is ridiculous, and younger people from the East have to come all the way to the West if they want to participate. Mainz alone has over 500,000 visitors for it (Cologne attracts over 1,000,000). Southern Germany has a similar celebration called Fasching, but it really doesn’t even compare. The real celebration actually starts every November 11th, at 11:11am, with the mayor giving a hilarious speech to the entire town (I posted pictures of that back in November). Then from November until Fastnacht, committees get together to create their costumes, floats, speeches, and events.
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| Helen with her new friend |
Wearing crazy military-inspired gear turned into wearing pretty much what you want. A nickname for the event translates to “The Party of Bad Taste”. Think of Halloween and Mardi Gras… on crack. People go all out… children and adults alike... and EVERYBODY dresses up... no matter what. This results in 6 days of complete ridiculousness.
So how did I celebrate for 6 whole days?!
Thursday
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| Mad Hatter |
Thursday night is when the event starts, and the night is called “Weiberfastnacht" of "Women's Fastnacht". It’s where women go to men’s offices and cut off their ties and other crazy pranks and then they go out to the clubs (most bars/clubs won’t allow entrance to men until later on in the night). Pretty hilarious if you ask me. Unfortunately, I didn’t see any tie-cutting, but I went out to the city with some friends only with the intention of walking around. Well, I was sucked into the atmosphere and we all decided to go dancing and join in on the fun… except we didn’t have any costumes on. One place rejected us since we weren’t taking part in the festivities correctly (understood!) and the next place we went to, decided they would make us some costumes. The bouncer drew cat whiskers on my face, and two different kinds of masks on my friends. I think that’s when we realized how intense this weekend was really going to be.
Friday
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| Cowboys representin' even in Germany! |
Friday, my friend Helen came in from Berlin and we went out to a huge club in Mainz with some of my German work friends. My Scottish girl costume and Helen’s flapper girl costume were pretty tame compared to what we saw at the club. Some people are incredibly creative.
Saturday
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| Gotta love the background |
Saturday, we were pretty tired the entire day. Me, Helen, and my friend Erich decided to go to the military base for some American fast food… the best way to cure a hangover, right? Helen was ecstatic about Popeye’s, since she had been craving a taste of hometown Louisiana for awhile. I’m pretty sure we just sat in the food court for about 2 hours… without moving.
Sunday
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| Ralf & Jutta sporting their clown costumes! |
Sunday, me, Helen, Khoa, and Tina (another girl in CBYX), went to Howard’s host family’s house (without Howard!) and enjoyed a delicious home-cooked German meal for lunch. So. Good. (well, minus the cucumber salad… there's my illogical dislike for pickles again… thank you Khoa for eating mine!). weirdddddd weird weird. After lunch, Ralf and Jutta got their Fastnacht costumes on (they were clowns!! Awesome!) and we headed to a nearby suburb of Mainz, called Finthen, for the day’s biggest parade. We stood behind the most adorable cowboy and Indian toddlers, who I so badly wanted to take a picture of, but then thought that was really creepy and decided against it. Anyways, we saw some impressive costumes and floats (most years had their own float.. for example, if you were born in 1988, you rode on the 1988 float). It was funny to see a lot of the late 1980s and early 1990s’ floats adorned with a built-in club… complete with DJ, lights, massive bass, and dance music. Hilarious.
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| Takin a break |
After the parade, we went to a nearby coffee shop and enjoyed a beer with some of Ralf and Jutta’s friends.
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| This carnival ride made my night! |
We then all headed back to Mainz to where the main celebration was taking place. In the distance I saw a huge carnival ride and knew immediately I was going to go on it. Is it weird that carnival rides still make me so extremely happy?! Well, I’m glad that Khoa and Tina agreed. All 3 of us went on it, and I really think it was in the top 5 of best rides I’ve ever ridden. We got to ride it for so long, had some of the most amazing views, and it went extremely fast. My kind of ride.
Afterwards, everyone went home except Helen and I… we decided to meet up with some of my friends to join the massive dance party that was going on the main square, Schillerplatz. We were dancing in the infamous Mainz landmark, the Fastnachtsbrunnen (fountain), while listening to the most entertaining music at that moment. (That’s another thing I should mention… during Fastnacht, they play music called Schlager or Guggen music or something, which is the most obnoxious, cheesy music you’ll ever hear, and only played during Fastnacht… well, and Oktoberfest. It pretty much gets everyone yelling and dancing in unison at all hours of the day.. example of one of my favorites here (yes, we even did all the hand movements)):
Monday
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| Erasmus friends |
Monday is the most famous and most important day of Fastnacht. It’s called Rosenmontag (Rose Monday) and the entire town is unofficially off from work (it’s not a federal holiday, but nobody goes to work and all the shops and businesses are closed). This is when over 500,000 people come to Mainz and start celebrating around 10:00am, right before the 3-4 hour long parade throughout the city starts. My friend Travis came in to celebrate, but Helen, him, Khoa, and Tina went to a different part of the city to celebrate while I stayed back to celebrate by the main square with some of my international Erasmus friends. We ended up celebrating the entire day, took a break for some chicken (yes, please), my phone died, another dance party on Schillerplatz... pretty much just massive chaos everywhere.
Tuesday
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| Getting ready to walk to the parade |
Tuesday is the last day of Fastnacht, and not many people celebrate. I, however, was asked by a German family I know here to walk in the parade with them and their sports club in their suburb of Mombach. I definitely couldn’t pass up a chance to actually be in the parade! Helen came with me to their house in the morning, where we enjoyed the typical German coffee and cake talk time (I love that), and we even got to see one of their little girls’ English homework. So weird to see how people learn your native language (Timmy has got a huge tummy. Susie can’t play soccer). They also showed us their garden, trampoline, and pool (definitely not typical for a German house… so awesome) and their HUGE cellar that even has a bar in it. They also gave Helen and I our own jar of jam made from some unique fruit from their garden… wish I could remember which fruit it was!
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| Me, Annika, & Helena |
Then Helen left to meet up with Travis and find a spot at the parade to watch me. I put on my flower hat and green shirt the family made for me, and we loaded up our bags full of candy to throw out to the little ones. Everytime you throw out candy you’re supposed to say “HELAU!!’, the official greeting in Mainz during Fastnacht, and do this sort of wave thing with your hand. I had fun scoping out the little kids who didn’t have that much candy yet or who had bigger kids beating them to all the goods… I made sure they got some too!!
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| Walking through Mombach |
After the parade I was invited to the sports club to enjoy a Kreppel (the traditional "donut" eaten during Fastnacht) and then go to a small restaurant with the whole sports club and eat dinner. We had a good time talking (well, sort of, a lot of German means a lot of confusion for me) but it was definitely a great experience. I really don’t know how to repay the people that have been so kind to me!!
So, that is the ridiculousness that is Fastnacht. Germans definitely go all out, and I can see why this only happens once a year.
Sounds awesome! It's really cool that you got to experience such a big local event. I imagine it'd be like going to Mardi Gras for someone from Canada.
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