Today is »Rosenmontag« (literally ›Rose Monday‹ or ›Rosormånd

Today is »Rosenmontag« (literally ›Rose Monday‹ or ›Rosormåndag‹) in Germany. Especially in the parts of the Rhineland like Cologne, Düsseldorf or Mainz Rosenmontag is celebrated with big festivities.

Rosenmontag is the peak of the carnival celebration week, that started on Thursday and will end on Tuesday night. Besides big parades on streets there are a lot of costume balls with comedy program in big meeting halls.  

Today, the Rosenmontag is celebrated with big parades in big towns but even in smaller villages. Often people are dressed up with creative costumes.

The oldest and biggest as well as probably the most famous parade takes place in Cologne. This years parade has over 11,500 participants, 130 music bands and over 100 dressed up wagons with different mottos. Common mottos of these years are the NSA surveillance affair and the affairs regarding the ADAC (Germanys automobile club).

There are a lot of traditions like that participants throw candies for children and women get flowers from men in exchange for kisses. Children have to scream for »Kamelle« (means candy) and women for »Strüsschen« (means bouquet). Altogether a stock of 150 tons of candies are thrown in Cologne as well as 300,000 bouquets this year.

Every city or region has its own interjection slogan like »Alaaf« in Cologne, »Helau« in Düsseldorf and Mainz or »Olau« in Koblenz.

During the festivities many people drink a lot of alcoholic beverages, especially in the night hours in the main bars and discotheques. For foreign visitors this can appear strange.

The Local collected some more photos of these year’s parades.

Pic: Cup'oCofi: http://flic.kr/p/boXLr3

Quellen:
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosenmontag
http://www.tagesschau.de/schlusslicht/karneval408.html
http://www1.wdr.de/themen/panorama/sp_karneval14/rosenmontag284.html