Die fünfte Jahreszeit (Fifth Season) is celebrated every year throughout the German speaking world. Carnival or Fasching is the last celebration that takes place right before Ash Wednesday. There have been many traditions that have come and gone but only 2 have remained throughout time: NOISE and MASKS. In the large cities you would see lots of floats, which feature past news and events, music, food, and costumes.
Here in the United States
Something that really surprised me was that “Many scholars used to explain Carnival traditions as remnants of pre-Christian, Teutonic or Celtic rites.” Also something else was that when researchers took a closer look they found out that many of the “features, can be traced to end-of-the-year festivals which were celebrated during the winter solstice as the birthday of the sun god, honored not only by the Germanic peoples, but also by Egyptians, Syrians, Greek and Romans under differing names.”
Carnival Season brings people together in many ways. Different people not only come together to build floats and make costumes for that special day, but to also celebrate the day itself. This day gives people the day off from life itself and to reflect on the past year and the future years to come.
Floats for the future might be Russia Greece Egypt
http://www.spiegel.de/fotostrecke/fotostrecke-65424-15.html
http://www.delish.com/food-fun/germany-fastnacht-carnival-food#fbIndex7
http://www.mrshea.com/germusa/customs/karneval.htm
I really like all of your pictures. The second picture looks very interesting and makes me wonder what event is being expressed by the float. The food in your last picture looks very good. Everyone seems to really enjoy Carnival and it looks to be a lot of fun.
ReplyDeleteI like the first picture, they sure have very interesting costumes. I wonder what some of them symbolize...? I was also very interested that this festival does not just happen in the German speaking countries of Europe but was celebrated in different culture like Egypt which totally took me by suprise.
ReplyDeleteWow, yours was very interesting to read. You gave a lot more examples and told us more about this holiday than i've actually read in the articles. Your pictures you chose are awesome as well. By the last picture, i guess the Germans like the same snack foods as America!
ReplyDeleteLiked your posting, that pretzel looks so good! Pretzels and mustard are one of my favorite things. Good citations too, definitely provided great background for all of your assertions.
ReplyDeleteI feel you have very good pictures especially the pretzel which made me really hungry. The picture of the lady was quite interesting and colorful. Overall I feel this would be a fun festive occasion to attend and it would be interesting to see all the fun costumes and floats.
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