Carnival (see other spellings and names) is a festive season that occurs before the Christian season of Lent. The main events typically occur during February or early March. Carnival typically involves a public celebration and/or parade combining some elements of a circus, masks and public street party. People wear masks during many such celebrations, an overturning of life's normal things. The celebrations have long been associated with heavy alcohol consumption.
The term Carnival is traditionally used in areas with a large Catholic presence. However, the Philippines, a predominantly Roman Catholic country, does not celebrate Carnival anymore since the dissolution of the Manila Carnival after 1939, the last carnival in the country. In historically Lutheran countries, the celebration is known as Fastelavn, and in areas with a high concentration of Anglicans and Methodists, pre-Lenten celebrations, along with penitential observances, occur on Shrove Tuesday. In Eastern Orthodox nations, Maslenitsa is celebrated during the last week before Great Lent. In German-speaking Europe and the Netherlands, the Carnival season traditionally opens on 11/11 (often at 11:11 a.m.). This dates back to celebrations before the Advent season or with harvest celebrations of St. Martin's Day.
Rio de Janeiro's carnival is considered the world's largest, hosting approximately two million participants per day. In 2004, Rio's carnival attracted a record 400,000 foreign visitors.
The Latin-derived name of the holiday is sometimes also spelled Carnaval, typically in areas where Dutch, German, French, Spanish, and Portuguese are spoken, or Carnevale in Italian-speaking contexts. Alternate names are used for regional and local celebrations.
The origin may be from the Italian word "carne" (meat) or "carrus" (car). The former suggests an origin within Christianity, while the alternative links to earlier religions.
Folk etymologies state that the word comes from the Late Latin expression carne vale, which means "farewell to meat", signifying the approaching fast. The word carne may also be translated as flesh, producing "a farewell to the flesh", a phrase embraced by certain Carnival celebrants to embolden the festival's carefree spirit. However, this interpretation is not supported by philological evidence.
The Italian carne levare is one possible origin, meaning "to remove meat", since meat is prohibited during Lent.
Other scholars argue for the origin from the Roman name for the festival of the Navigium Isidis (ship of Isis), where the image of Isis was carried to the seashore to bless the start of sailing season. The festival consisted of a parade of masks following an adorned wooden boat, possibly source of the floats of modern Carnivals.
A variety of customs and traditions are associated with Carnival celebrations in the German-speaking countries of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. They can vary considerably from country to country, but also from one small region to another. This is reflected in the various names given to these festivities occurring before Lent.
In parts of East and South Germany, as well as in Austria, the carnival is called Fasching. In Franconia and Baden-Wurttemberg as well as some other parts of Germany, the carnival is called Fas(t)nacht or Fasnet; in Switzerland, Fasnacht.
While Germany's carnival traditions are mostly celebrated in the predominantly Roman Catholic southern and western parts of the country, the Protestant North traditionally knows a festival under the Low Saxon names Fastelavend and Fastlaam (also spelled Fastlom). This name has been imported to Denmark as Fastelavn and is related to Vastelaovend in the Low-Saxon-speaking parts of the Netherlands. It is traditionally connected with farm servants or generally young men going from house to house in the villages and collecting sausages, eggs and bacon, which was consumed in a festivity on the same evening. While going from house to house they wore masks and made noise. The old tradition vanished in many places, in other places under influence of German carnival traditions it came to resemble carnival with its parades.
The carnival session, also known as the "Fifth Season", begins each year on 11 November at 11:11 a.m. and finishes on Ash Wednesday of the following year with the main festivities happening around Rosenmontag (Rose Monday).
Although the festivities and parties start as early as the beginning of January, the actual carnival week starts on the Fat Thursday (Weiberfastnacht) before Ash Wednesday (in Germany). The big German carnival parades are held on the weekend before and especially on Rosenmontag, the day before Shrove Tuesday, and sometimes also on Shrove Tuesday (Faschingsdienstag or Veilchendienstag) itself in the suburbs of larger carnival cities.
In German-speaking countries, there are essentially 2 distinct variations of Carnivals: the Rhenish Carnival in the west of Germany, centred on the cities of Dusseldorf, Cologne and Mainz, and the Alemannic or Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht in Swabia (Southwestern Germany), Switzerland, Alsace and Vorarlberg (Western Austria).
The Rhenish Carnival (Rheinischer Karneval, mainly in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia and Rhineland-Palatinate) is famous for celebrations such as parades and costume balls. Cologne Carnival is the largest and most famous. Cologne, Dusseldorf and Mainz are held in the public media to be Germany's three carnival strongholds, but carnival celebrations are also widespread elsewhere in the Rhineland.
Rhineland
In the Rhineland festivities developed especially strongly, since it was a way to express subversive anti-Prussian and anti-French thoughts in times of occupation, through parody and mockery. Modern carnival there began in 1823 with the founding of a Carnival Club in Cologne. Most cities and villages of the Rhineland have their own individual carnival traditions. Nationally famous are the carnival in Cologne (K ln), D sseldorf and Mainz.
In the Rhineland, the culmination of the carnival around Rosenmontag is considered to be the "fifth season of the year". Clubs organize "sessions" which are show events called Sitzung with club members or invited guests performing dance, comedy and songs in costumes. The most frequently performed piece of music during such "sessions" is the "Narrhallamarsch". The committee that organizes the events in each town consists of a president and 10 junior members and is called the "Council of Eleven" or Elferrat. The number eleven, elf in German, is significant in Carneval celebrations becauseit is an acronym for the French Revolution values of egalit, libert, fraternit.
The carnival spirit is then temporarily suspended during Advent and Christmas, and picks up again in earnest in the New Year. The time of merrymaking in the streets is officially declared open at the Alter Markt (de) during the Cologne Carnival on the Thursday before the beginning of Lent. The main event is the street carnival that takes place in the period between the Thursday before Ash Wednesday and Ash Wednesday. Carnival Thursday is called Altweiber (Old women day) in Dusseldorf or Wieverfastelovend (The women's day) in Cologne. This celebrates the beginning of the "female presence in carnival", which began in 1824, when washer-women celebrated a "workless day" on the Thursday before carnival. They founded a committee in 1824 to strengthen their presence in the still male-dominated carnival celebrations. In each city, a woman in black storms the city hall to get the "key" for the city-/townhalls from its mayor. In many places "fools" take over city halls or municipal government and "wild" women cut men's ties wherever they get hold of them. Also, as a tradition, women are allowed to kiss every man who passes their way. On the following days, there are parades in the street organized by the local carnival clubs. The highlight of the carnival period however is Rose Monday (Rosenmontag). Although Rose Monday is not an official holiday in the Rhineland, in practice most public life comes to a halt and almost all workplaces are closed. The biggest parades are on Rose Monday, the famous Rosenmontagsumzug (Rose Monday Parade), e.g. in Cologne, Dusseldorf, Mainz, and many other cities. During these events, hundreds of thousands of people celebrate in the streets, even if temperatures are low, most of them dressed up in costumes. Many regions have special carnival cries (Cologne, Bonn and Aachen: Alaaf!; D OEsseldorf and Mainz: Helau!). The carnival in the Netherlands is partially derived from the Rhenish carnival.
"Rheinische" Carnival (Fasching)
The "Rheinische" Carnival is held in the west of Germany, mainly in the states of North Rhine-Westphalia or Nordrhein-Westfalen, Rhineland Palatinate or Rheinland-Pfalz, but also in Hessen [including Oberhessen], Bavaria and other states. Some cities are more famous for celebrations such as parades and costume balls. Koln or Cologne Carnival, as well as Mainz and Dusseldorf are the largest and most famous. Other cities have their own, often less well-known celebrations, parades and parties such as Worms am Rhein, Speyer, Kaiserslautern, Frankfurt, Darmstadt, Mannheim, Ludwigshafen, Stuttgart, Augsburg and Munhen [Munich] Nurnberg. On Carnival Thursday (called "Old Women Day" or "The Women's Day") in commemoration of an 1824 revolt by washer-women, women storm city halls, cut men's ties, and are allowed to kiss any passing man.
The Fasching parades and floats make fun of individual politicians and other public figures. Many speeches do the same.
Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, with a population of around 1.49 million. The Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.6 million people.
The name of the city is derived from the Old High German term Munichen, meaning "by the monks". It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat of arms. Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes. Black and gold the colours of the Holy Roman Empire have been the city's official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, the town became the country's sole capital in 1506. Catholic Munich was a cultural stronghold of the Counter-Reformation and a political point of divergence during the resulting Thirty Years' War, but remained physically untouched despite an occupation by the Protestant Swedes; as the townsfolk would rather open the gates of their town than risk siege and almost inevitable destruction. Like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. Having evolved from a duchy's capital into that of an electorate (1623), and later a sovereign kingdom (1806), Munich has been a centre of arts, culture and science since the early 19th century. The city became the Nazi movement's infamous Hauptstadt der Bewegung (lit.: "Capital of the movement"), and after post-war reconstruction was the host city of the 1972 Summer Olympics.