Karneval

A week or two ago Karneval took over this part of Germany. Already the week before I started running into people (of all ages) with strange costumes and painted faces. These incidents increased exponentially until, on Rosenmontag, it all came to a magnificent culmination. All the time people were partying; dancing everywhere, eating lots of sausages and of course consuming copious amount of beer.

Like before, I'll share some pictures my friends took of these eventsTypically (i.e., for Karneval) dressed-up Germans
Rosenmontagszug is a parade with certain political elements, but all in a very humorous way

Some costumes were clearly very elaborate

One thing that puzzled us Swedes were why the Germans had chosen to party at a time of the year which normally is pretty cold (however, we experienced optimal weather, with sunshine and 15 degrees plus). Perhaps the reason, as with Lucia in Sweden, is that when nature is at its coldest and darkest, that is when you need to have something fun to do.