Monday, February 22, 2010

Rosenmontag!

Okay, I'm a bit behind on my posts. I've been having fun reacclimating to Germany!

Just to confuse you, I'm going to post in reverse order (starting w/ most recent events and then moving backwards).

Rosenmontag is a festival that is celebrated on the Monday prior to Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent. It's the highlight of the German karnavel and occurs the day prior to Marti Gras.

People celebrate by dressing up in costumes, having parades, and, of course, drinking heavily! We took the train to join the festival in Mainz.

While waiting for the train, Peter, Meredith and Courtney had to practice their cat faces.




On the train, Courtney tried to trade a couple of German guys some bacon (don't ask!) for a beer. She got the beer, but they declined the bacon!




The parade had an impressive display of floats!








They also flew many of these flags right over our heads. It reminded me of the old elementary school parachute game where you run under the parachute!








There were also several clowns and bands, including one featuring some scary goblin looking creatures.












There was also a float displaying a traditional Mardi Gras party.



One of the main attractions was dashing to get the free gifts that the parade participants threw out. While a lot of it was candy, we also go a thumb drive, hat, rubber balls, and a package of tissues! Sadly, we didn't catch the video game!




Finally, many of the costumes the crowd wore were quite elaborate. Here was an entire family that was dressed like Avatars!




We left after 4 hours, and the parade was still going strong!

All in all, it was a great day (and thankfully, coincided w/ President's Day, so I had the day off)! Germans certainly know how to party!