Fasching

Alright, so when Chris and I arrived in Germany Fasching had just begun. I haven’t really talked about it the way that I have wanted to because I was waiting on videos I have just now finished. I have never celebrated Mari Gras, Karnival, Fasching, or whatever you want to call it. In the states as well as elsewhere it seems to be mostly an excuse to drink. I don’t drink and therefore I don’t celebrate. But in Germany at least there is more to the week-long celebration than going to the bar on Fat Tuesday and getting wasted. In fact, there isn’t even a Fat Tuesday here, it is Fat Thursday.  Practically everyone celebrates here, and they dress up almost every day, even when they are going to work. A lot of people will throw parties throughout the week, and just have a good time. And there are parades… lots of parades.

We only went to two parades, but I know there were several more in the area alone. At the parades there are different floats and one of the things that the people can do during Fasching is make political statement they wouldn’t otherwise. So a few of the floats were political in nature in the way you would see people in the states protesting.  One float was commenting on Wolff, whose political scandal was recently exposed. There were a pair of feet sticking out of a meat grinder and I sign which said “Our country needs a new hero”.  I don’t remember if that particular float ended up in the video or not. (I had to take a lot of the parades out for time.)

One thing you will see a lot of, even though I cut most of them out are lines of girls saying “Alleh hoop”. “Alleh hoop” is what the people here say during Fasching. It means something to the effect of let’s go.  Most of the parades were spent telling everyone “Alleh hoop”. When you say “Alleh hoop” you move your right hand from your left hip up and out across your right shoulder.  It was interesting to see, because at first glance it is a similar gesture to the one used in Nazi Germany—at least similar at first glance. It however has nothing to do with the Nazi party, and for all I know it could have come first.

Another thing is the amount of alcohol being consumed in public. And the parade walkers ( I don’t know what to call them exactly) just hand out little bottles of liquor to any adult. Some of it was even homemade spirits. The also threw candy, popcorn and chips for the children. When I was watching the children run into the street to pick candy during the breaks, I thought how confusing it must be for children to know when it is ok to run into the street and eat the food they found and when it isn’t. 

I remember when I was little we were still allowed to throw candy in parades, and not just hand it to the children, but I don’t ever remember being able to go out into the street to collect anything we didn’t catch. We could pick up the stuff around our feet, but not out in the middle. Maybe that was because of all the horses in our parades. Candy in the middle of the street didn’t stay edible very long, if you catch my drift.

Other floats were just fun. One of the cool things was the themed groups. Mexican and other nationalities were really popular to dress up as, as well as the Smurfs and Gummy Bears. There were a few really interesting costumes like this scorpion type one. The Venetian masks were really cool as well.  Another common costume were cowboys or Indians. It was funny at times to see how the Germanys perceive or at least portray these two iconic American groups.  In one of the parades it was ironic that the Indians were following the cowboys instead of the other way around. And on another float they had an American flag.

It was interesting to see the American flag. I don’t think I really realized it was there at the parade because I am so used to seeing it flying, and we had only been in Germany a couple of days. When I was going through the footage I noticed it was there. Germans don’t fly the their flag the way Americans do. It they did others would be likely to perceive the flyers were Nazis or something of the like. I like that most Americans are proud to be so and show it my flying a flag outside their house. For me, coming from a military oriented family it is very natural to fly a flag. Almost like your house isn’t your home until you have your flag pole out by your front door. Germans don’t have that mindset partially because of WWII and the platforms the Third Reich stood for. It is just another thing I am learning. Different thoughts on patriotism lead to different actions, and it shows that actions don't always reflect the feelings of one’s heart.