Helau!

It is the season of Fasching here in Germany, or it can be referred to as Karneval. It's very similar to Mardi Gras.

For history and a lot more detail, please visit:

http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/la/lote/german/links/topics/karneval.htm

Tomorrow, it is called Rosenmontag (Rose Monday). This is the craziest day of them all. I doubt that we will participate in much of this, but I have a bag of candy in my car because I've been warned that older kids/teenagers like to play street games where they won't let you pass unless you give them candy.

We've actually been warned to stay away from the utter craziness of Fasching even though one of the huge celebrations will be going on not too far from us in Mainz.

To see what I'm talking about, visit: http://www.mardigraschicago.com/Mainztrip.htm

However, yesterday, we drove there and celebrated the "Kinderfasching" which was the celebration for kids. They had food, carnival rides and a huge parade with 4,000 children participating. Throughout the parade, the participants would shout "Helau" to the crowd, and we would shout "Helau" back to them. Adults and children were dressed up, some in elaborate costumes, others in crazy hats and scarves and then boring people like us. Next year, we will be dressing up! It was a lot of fun. That statement just doesn't do it justice. Both our kids seemed to enjoy themselves, we were there for almost four hours! And, I will say this: yesterday was the most fun I've had in Germany! I actually enjoyed it more than the Christmas markets!

I am posting a few pictures. Unfortunately, my new camera is/was having some problems yesterday, so I got a lot of "file errors" and am not able to retrieve a lot of my pictures from yesterday. I have reformatted my memory stick, and hopefully that will do the trick.

Until later,

Emily