Ribbons Undone

Köln is a Catholic city- so before Lent, they GO CRAZY. Karneval is such a big deal here, and is so ingrained in the culture of Köln that it’s called “The Fifth Season.” It goes on for about a week (the partying part of it anyways) and is a mix between Mardi Gras and Halloween. People come from all over to party and experience it. It’s the largest street festival in all of Europe. The other day Simon cracked me up when he said, “We Colognians take our spiritual disobedience very seriously.”

Friedel told me that there are hundreds of “Karneval Clubs” in the city that meet regularly throughout the year to prepare for Karneval and plan their floats that will be in the Karneval parades (while drinking Kölsch of course!). These parades are epic- hundreds of decorated floats that spend the whole day weaving throughout the city throwing treats out to the crowds. Men in the crowd yell “Strüssje!” (which means “bouquet!”) and then roses are thrown at them from the float. They then give it to their sweetheart (or whomever they fancy). Kids yell “Kamelle!” (which means “Sweets!”) and lots of candy and other treats are thrown at them. It’s like a circus at the same time- stilt walkers, acrobats, marching bands.

For grownups Karneval is all about drinking, eating, music, and sex. No joke- every year, 40 weeks after Karneval there is a big baby boom. Hospitals prepare ahead to make sure they have enough staff in their maternity wards. The “Karneval pub crawl” is very popular- going to as many pubs as you can (and there are A LOT of pubs here!). All of these places play Karneval music- there are thousands of Karneval songs- many of which praise Köln and it’s people. A popular Kölsch Karneval phrase you will hear over and over again is “Kölle Alaaf!” which translates to “Cologne above all!” Lots of these songs are learned from an early age.

For kids, Karneval is all about dressing up in costumes, singing Karneval songs (which they are taught in school), watching the MANY parades go by, and CANDY. Quinnie has been learning Karneval songs at school and loves it. The other morning I heard her and Simon singing along together to Karneval songs they found on YouTube. Simon loves it. Even when we were living in San Diego he would blast his Karneval music from time to time.

About a month ago I went to a big Department Store and they were already all prepared for Karneval. I snapped a few pics-

The clown is the symbol of Karneval- dressing up, being silly, having fun.

Red and White are the Köln colors- you will see them a lot at Karneval

I have noticed that Native American Indians are really popular here. Not just for costumes- kids are into them- you can find lots of books and toys

As you can see- the weirder the better

The tri-corner hat and costumes from that time period are also very popular

Sparkle Overalls for me and Simon? (lol)

Karneval jewelry. I bought the girls pins of the Dom that light up (not shown here- will get a pic for my next Karneval post).

Lots of the Karneval Clubs design their own necklaces each year (there are hundreds). Oma and Opa gave the girls 3 (from past years) that they had lying around their house (pic below). They love them.

Quinnie wearing her Karneval necklaces

Decorations in Kiera’s school…

A candy decoration (it’s thrown from the floats in the parades).

Karneval reminders everywhere…

Heidi Klum (who’s from the Köln area) wearing a “Funkemariechen” costume (translates to “spark Marie” but also Majorette). This is a really popular Karneval costume for women.

Today was Weiberfastnacht (Fat Thursday)- the beginning of Karneval. Both girls got to wear their costumes to school and their classes were having Karneval parties. Quinnie wanted to be a princess, and Kiera wanted to be a bee. (Kiera didn’t like any of the bee costumes I found her, so she decided to be a princess also.)

There were SO MANY awesome costumes on the train when I went to pick Quinnie up from school. I wish I was brave enough to have snapped photos of all of them. I tend to be more shy about that here than in the States. Here, if someone gets pissed I’m taking their photo it can be really awkward with me not understanding lots of German (especially the Kölsch dialect). Oh well- I know I’ll get lots of awesome Karneval photos on Monday. Here are just a few from today…

Quinnie with her friends Irma and Matilda

Simon snapped a few pics in the train station on his way home from work…

We are fleeing the city for Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We’re going on a short family vacation (will post about it later). We’ll be back on Monday for the highlight of Karneval- Rosenmontag (Rose Monday). This is the most fun day for the kids- where they have the biggest parade with candy and roses being thrown at the crowds from the floats.

Tuesday is the Veedelszöösch where the different Quarters/ Neighborhoods throw their own parades and parties.

Wednesday is Aschermittwoch (Ash Wednesday) and the end of Karneval. The Nubbel (an effigy) is burned to symbolize this.

Here is the Wikipedia page for the Köln Karneval– I really recommend you read it- some very interesting information.

I’ll do my next post on Karneval sometime next week- hopefully with lots of fun pictures. Have a great weekend!

Valentine’s Day is definitely not as big a deal here as it is in the States. It isn’t acknowledged at school in any way. Quinnie was especially bummed about this- “No Valentine’s cards from my friends?!”. If you look you can find some Valentine-related gifts and candy but it’s nothing like it is in the States where most stores have Valentine items. In fact I was thrilled when I found some heart shaped chocolates for the girls’ Valentine baskets only to realize later that they were filled with liquor (lol- no wonder they were so expensive!). We decided to make our own Valentines for friends and family anyways. The girls LOVE doing crafts so Valentine’s Day is the perfect excuse to make a huge, crafty mess. They were at it for hours…

Thank goodness for Grandma in America- she always helps us celebrate American holidays here by sending care packages filled with traditional holiday stuff that we can’t find here and that the girls would really miss otherwise (especially for Halloween and Valentine’s Day).

Grandma’s package arrives!! I cannot even express how excited the girls were about the contents. The punching balloons (hard to find here) and candy hearts with messages on them were the biggest hit!

Thank You Mom for helping us keep our American holiday traditions alive- we really appreciate it!!

Valentine baskets I fill every year for the girls on Valentine’s Day.

Quinnie checking out her loot…

Kiera getting right to it- I love the arm possessively wrapped around her basket- she’s probably thinking “you aren’t getting any of my candy!”.

Valentine’s Day is also Oma’s Birthday so we went over to her house to celebrate and have dinner. I didn’t get any pictures (which Oma is probably thrilled about- she likes getting her picture taken about as much as I do!), but I snapped a photo of the picture Quinnie made for her. Unfortunately I can’t find the picture I took of Kiera’s drawing for her which is too bad because it was awesome. Oh well.

February 16th was our 13th wedding Anniversary. Because it falls just 2 days after Valentine’s Day we usually lump them together. Simon is NOT into holidays- ANY holidays- so it is all up to me to make any holiday special for the girls (which is fine since I enjoy doing it). He says it’s because he won “the birth lottery” and had such awesome parents that almost every day was wonderful, so holidays weren’t that different from or more exciting than regular days.

The fact that he puts almost no effort into holidays, birthdays or Anniversaries took some getting used to (and was a bone of contention for some time). It was hard not to take his lack of effort as a sign that he didn’t care, but he would say “But I treat you like a Queen every day of the year- isn’t that better than only making a few days a year special?” He is pretty nice to me (3/4 of the time at least -lol). So I was shocked that the day before Valentine’s Day he actually prepared in advance and did something for Valentine’s/ our Anniversary. He took the girls to The Chocolate Museum to pick out a chocolate cupid for me, and also put 13 chocolate hearts (one for every year we’ve been married) in a heart shape around the flowers and cupid. I especially liked that he involved the girls. I love that they have such a wonderful Papa and hope they use the example of how he treats me as a model for how they should be treated in their future relationships.

Happy Valentine’s Day!!!