Well, it was finally time. People have been telling me about Carnival in Cologne since day one. They even call Carnival time a �fifth season� around here. Actually, just hours after I found out that I was coming to Germany, I told somebody in one of my classes and he started telling me how crazy Carnival is and that I couldn�t miss it under any circumstances. Carnival also comprises a substantial portion of my trusty guide book�s section on Cologne. Here�s what the city�s tourism office has to say about it. (link)
�Carnival in Cologne is almost as old as the history of the city itself. But the organized carnival celebrated today only dates back 178 years. The Greeks and Romans celebrated cheerful spring festivals in honour of Dionysus and Saturn with wine, women and song. The ancient Germans celebrated the winter solstice as a homage to the Gods and expulsion of the evil winter demons. Later the Christians adopted the heathen customs. The period of fasting (Lent) prior to Easter was heralded in by "Fastnacht" or "Karnival" - carne vale = Farewell to meat!
In the Middle Ages, the celebration of Carnival, the masquerade, often took on drastic forms, very much to the displeasure of the city council and the church. Bans and ordinances did little to help, the celebration was wild and spirited.�
Now, this time is marked and celebrated in many places across Germany and the world abroad, but Cologne really has it down. They have had an official Carnival committee since 1823 and I actually passed their gigantic office building (the Carnival House) on the way to the city park the other day with Michelle. Furthermore, most people leave work early on Thursday only to return by the middle of the next Tuesday despite the lack of any official holiday. Even the Post office is only open from 8:30 � 9:30 AM here. The cities residents have two choices, celebrate or vacate. (A number of people actually leave town because it�s too loud and crowded, but of course we stayed.)
Thursday
Thursday night a couple of my colleagues, Lars and Levin, joined Michelle and myself for a Weiberfastnachts party. This is a day where women are meant to have free reign over the city and run about indiscriminately cutting off people�s ties and committing other traditional acts of Carnival mischief. Michelle�s office had actually put up a huge tent outside their building and thrown a party from 11 AM. They had live bands playing Carnival music and drinks on the house. My office, not being Sony, didn�t put on quite the same party. Lars bought a case of Becks at 4 pm, but we were all the more ready for the evening. Now, when it comes down to it, the actual details of the night aren�t very exciting. We went to a pub and shot the breeze over a couple of K�lschs. (Cologne brewed beer) The real difference was in the dress. Everybody, and I mean every single person, dresses up for Carnival regardless of age or taste. At eight o�clock in the morning, you see elderly couples getting on the bus, dressed as mad hatters, leopards, clowns etc. It is simply unbelievable. It�s not limited to one part of town, or a couple of hours, it�s just the whole long weekend. On our way home we peeked in to a couple of other bars, and everyone was packed to overflowing with oddly dressed people. I remember thinking what a non-event Halloween had been, but I can see why, there�s simply no need for another costumed holiday after this.
Friday
Friday was when the AIESEC reception weekend for Carnival began. A reception weekend is where AIESEC in one city invites trainees from all over the country to come and see the sites, for Cologne, this weekend is always during Carnival. The first item on the agenda, was a big party hosted in an old watch tower that was once part of Cologne�s city wall. After climbing a winding flight of steps to the top of the tower, I joined the hundred other people on the makeshift dance floor for another fantastic costume party. For those of you wondering what my costume is, I will embarrassingly concede that it simply wasn�t very good. Not having enough money to rent a costume, I thought I�d make something from stuff lying around my house. Unfortunately, there is very little lying around my house (read single room apartment) that isn�t furniture. So, I ripped some arm holes in a dry cleaning bag, stuck a hanger in my collar, and went as dry cleaning.
Saturday
Some of Michelle�s friends from Hamburg had come down late on Friday night, and today we wanted to show them around the city they had travelled nearly 500 km to see. However, it poured rain for most of the morning and the better part of the afternoon. Our efforts were then further compounded by, believe it or not, the very thing that had drawn our guests, Carnival. With what seemed like all 900,000 of Cologne�s inhabitants out in the streets, the majority of whose judgement and tempers have fallen severely under the influence of alcohol, shopkeepers and museum stewards understandably shutter their establishments for the entire weekend. The end result is that with every museum, church and department store boarded over with sturdy planks, the city looks a little rough around the edges, and there is nothing to do but drink. (Now I begin to see the cause of the stark celebrate of vacate options.) We walked along the Rhine, and passed by buildings of note under cover of umbrella but quickly realised that without actually entering any buildings, the city tour I had planned for us was going to last about 20 minutes. After walking along the main shopping street and watching workmen install boards over whatever glass remained exposed to the open air, we headed home where Michelle made us all a huge spaghetti dinner.
Sunday
Sunday we were awakened by the sound of cheering and beating drums. (which actually sums up the next two days in a nutshell if you want to skip to the next story.) A parade was actually passing by my window. Nothing every happens on my street. It�s not quite sleepy, but still, I would never have guessed it to be a parade route, and this looked like a major parade. We all hurried downstairs to watch it as it passed by. Scores of marching bands, floats and costumed people streamed by for about half an hour, throwing candy to the onlookers as they went. There was a little girl dressed as a mouse beside us with who managed to fill a bag with candy to the point where it was as big as her. We also learned a vital Carnival parade lesson from her, the need to shout �Kamelle� (candy) as loud as possible if you want to get any goodies from the parade participants. What I thought was really amazing about the parade though was actually what it left in its wake, or rather, didn�t leave. The rearguard of the parade was actually made up of five street sweepers, driving in a staggered line and accompanied by a small army of men with brooms. They cleaned up just about everything as quickly as it had been cast on the ground. Now that�s efficiency.
After the parade, we returned to my apartment for a nice breakfast, and then made our way downtown where we had heard rumours of a �city party�. We didn�t know what exactly that meant, but we never really needed to find out. As we stepped out of the subway and into the main station downtown, we heard the drums again. A huge crowd was waiting outside for the next parade. Apparently the one we had seen in the morning had only been for my neighbourhood, this was the People�s Parade. The floats were still coursing by when Michelle�s friends realize they needed to go back into the station and catch their train back to Hamburg! Michelle and I returned to the parade after sending them off and were amazed when it finished more than three hours after we had watched it begin. And this wasn�t even the main event, the Rose Monday Parade.
Monday
So this was going to be the big one, the Rose Monday Parade. This is the professional event organized by the official Carnival Committee. And while the other parades we had seen were composed mostly of local groups and clubs, this one had big societies with Carnival budgets marching alongside actual Carnival clubs which work on their floats for months beforehand. It also has bigger crowds to match. Michelle and I met up with all my office buds at about 11 AM, and then headed downtown to brave the crowds. The streets were jam packed, everywhere, not just in a little segment of downtown, the parade route is huge. Janik and his brother as regular Carnival goers had already secured their traditional spot, all we had to do was break through the crowd, run across the parade route between floats, and we�d be there. It could have been easier, but we made it. Now this was a serious parade. We ended up eating two meals while watching it. It ended at 5 pm. It�s essentially like going out to a crowded bar and spending the day there, expect that you, like everybody else, is dressed like an idiot, screaming �Kamelle� and catching the stuff in big plastic bags, while standing in a busy downtown street on a working day. It was fantastic, but we were so exhausted by dinner time that we were in bed by about 7pm. Luckily, the Carnival schedule provides for this exhaustion, and the unofficial holiday time lasts until noon on Tuesday, perfect for sleeping in.
