Fasching

First for a little bit of the background to what I did this past Sunday.  Just so everyone knows were I am located in the Southern part of Germany.

What is Fastnacht?
The Germany equivalent of Mardi Gras is known as Fasching, or Karneval.  It is a celebration before the coming of Lent.  It is like Mardi Gras in the fact that it ends on Shrove Tuesday which is the last day before Ash Wednesday. Fasching officially begins on November eleventh at the eleventh second of the eleventh minute past the eleventh hour, and reaches a riotous crescendo during the weeks before Shrove Tuesday. Wild parties, gluttony, and sexual promiscuity are found in abundance. In reality, for the first month and a half, Fasching pretty much takes a back seat to the Christmas holidays. Come New Year's Eve, known as Silvester, however, everything geht's los. Every weekend, bars and nightclubs are packed with people dressed in costumes from sexy to outrageous.  Festivities rise to a fever pitch the last weekend before Ash Wednesday. Rosenmontag is the Monday before Ash Wednesday. It has nothing to do with roses, but rather stems from the slang word rasen, which means to rave and generally go wild. Faschingsdienstag is the last day of Fasching, with everyone getting in their last merrymaking before Lent starts.

History
European fasching has roots in ancient Egyptian rituals, sustained through the Roman period by the feasts of Bacchanalia and Saturnalia. Although the carnival attitude was somewhat lessened by the church in the Middle Ages, festivals still flourish today in France, Belgium, Italy and Germany.

Differences In North And South Germany
In the north, it's commonly called Karneval, and the biggest party seems to center around Cologne.  In the south, especially in the region of the Black Forest, Fasching is often called Fastnacht and its roots are pagan.
The northern Karneval has its roots in Christianity. The whole season is intended as a celebration before the seriousness of Lent. It's similar to Carneval in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Mardi Gras in New Orleans, USA. The parades are quite a spectacle and are well worth seeing. Most are held the last weekend of Karneval or on Rosenmontag. The last Thursday of Karneval is called Weiberfastnacht, when women are allowed to act as brazen as they choose. For those men wearing a tie, this includes cutting the tie off with a pair of scissors.

 In the south, especially in the region of the Black Forest, the season is known as Fasching or Fastnacht and its roots are pagan. Here the parades are not predominantly clowns, but witches and trolls. The old purpose of the Fasching was to chase away the spirits of winter. Similar to an American Halloween, children dress up in all manner of costumes, sometimes for parties at schools, sometimes just to feel the part as they watch their local parade. There are a few towns that are really known for their parades. The areas south of Stuttgart, Weil der Stadt and Rottenburg are considered to have the best. The parades are well worth seeing for the elaborate masks worn. These are true works of art, carved of wood, in the likenesses of witches, trolls, bears, or the Greenman (a sort of druidic forest creature).

This past Sunday a couple guys from work and myself went to Weil der Stadt to see the parade.  I have been to quite a few parades in the USA but this was quite the spectacle.  First this town of about 10,000 people swells to close to 50,000 for this event.  A majority of the people watching are also dressed up without a real theme.  I saw devils, clowns, nuns,  bears, and pretty much anything you can think of.  The crowd grew and grew people were drinking and just having a good time.  The parade started and it was similar to other parades with bands, floats, and people throwing out candy.  Then you start to realize there is some thing different about this parade.  There are trolls and people in very elaborate masks and they get the audience involved.  Mostly involuntarily but everyone is a good sport.  They seam to go after the young kids and girls mostly.  These groups of masked people would do such things as swing people from there hands and feet while another one would spank the persons butt as it swung by.  They would hold someone down and steal the shoe laces out of there shoes.  Mess with peoples hats. And as I found out put lipstick on people’s noses.  The funniest one was where they brought people on a float and put them through this hole that put the netting on them like you would see on a Christmas tree on the top of a car.  This parade went on for 2 ½ hours with something to see the whole time.  We were standing next to some people who were from the US and had been there before so they gave us some tips on what to look out for and to see.  They said they had been in Germany for a few years and thinks this is one of the best parades in the area.  After the parade in the town square it is a festival type atmosphere with food and drink stands and bands still playing.  This day started at noon getting on the train and ended about 7:30 when we finally got back to the hotel.  Following are some of the 150 pictures that I took.  I took so many pictures that my battery went dead.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.