Fasching!

I walked downtown to watch Schweinfurt's Fasching parade. Below I'll give you the actual meaning of Fasching, but in my opinion... it's Mardi Gras, Halloween, and the Fourth of July all thrown into one celebration. Everyone dresses up in costumes, from your little babies to the old men. It was quite fun to see everyone. There is a huge celebration, but the main attraction is the parade. There were elaborate floats where the riders threw TONS of candy and other random things. Several floats even had kegs on board and were passing out cups! Each float would go buy and the riders would be yelling "hallo" and throwing their hands up. If I wanted some excitement tonight, I could go back downtown and join in on the huge party going on. Tonight is the last night of the celebration, so they are closing it out with a bang!

The real meaning of fasching or karnivale...

Germans call the pre-Lenten Carnival season die närrische Saison ("the foolish season") or die fünfte Jahreszeit ("the fifth season"). Except for Munich's Oktoberfest, it is the one time of year when many normally staid Germans (and Austrians and Swiss) loosen up and go a little crazy. Fastnacht or Karneval is a "movable feast" that depends on the date of Easter. Carnival season is a time of wild fancy-dress parties and costume-balls, which are open to the public. Carnival reaches its climax in big street processions with elaborately decorated floats. Carnivals are held in southern German cities, and in the Rheinland cities of Mainz, Aachen, Bonn and Düsseldorf. The biggest and zaniest Karneval is in Köln. The first written record of the Köln carnival is from the year 1341.

If you want to know more, look it up online. There are lots of sites explaining it.

This would be a float that hands out beer.

This shows how extravagant the floats get. This space shuttled moved up and down.

There was tons of face paint. From small pictures to a complete mask. Also a lot of head gear. These were really fun hats!

This gives you an idea of how much candy is thrown. The people that watch from their windows hold umbrellas out to catch it all.

This is a video about teachers from the middle school I work at. They go down to Italy every year to participate in the celebrations and each year they make a new costume. Imagine costumes like these EVERYWHERE at the celebrations.