Helau! Rosenmontag Madness

Rosenmontag (literally "Rose Monday," also known as Shrove Monday in English), was celebrated today through central Germany with large Carnival parades.

The streets of my little city were crowded with costumed revelers, many already rather inebriated when the festivities began at 14:11, yelling "Helau" as the floats passed by and then scrambling to catch or scoop up all the candy and toys thrown into the streets. It's pure madness in Mülheim; I hate to think what it looks like in larger cities.

I like to skirt around the outer banks of the crowds and observe the craziness from a safe distance. As I was doing so this afternoon, I spied this adorable little clown, looking less than enthused, peering from beyond the brightly decorated wagon her big people had brought along to tow their beer and related loot. I don't think she's having much fun. Who can blame her? It was below freezing and she was surrounded mostly by adults behaving like naughty Kindergartners - it's a scary thing.

I've yet to figure out exactly what all of this has to do with Lent, but I can imagine that the tradition of Lenten sacrifices was invented so people could repent for their Carnival indulgences :)