| |
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
The Week in Germany: Culture February 23, 2007 Alaaf! Cologne Carnival Parade too Long to fit on Route
This year's huge parade of carnival floats, bands and clowns
which wove its way through the narrow streets of Cologne on Monday was
too long to fit on the 6.5-kilometer (4-mile) route. The head of the procession was set to reach the dispersal zone before
the tail of the parade had departed from the marshalling area. An estimated
1 million people, most in fancy dress or clown makeup, gathered on the
sidewalks hours in advance to sing and cheer. Floats in Germany's biggest annual parade were marked with the 2007 carnival
motto in the city, "All of us make up Cologne". Many carried
papier-mâché sculptures of German politicians to poke fun
at them. The festivities climax on Monday, known in Germany as Rosenmontag. The
event has its origins as a prelude to the Catholic fasting season of Lent,
which began in 2007 on Wednesday. Similar big parades were held Monday in the cities of Mainz and Düsseldorf.
Many of the 2 million revellers in the three cities dressed as pirates,
reflecting the popularity in Germany of Pirates of the Caribbean
movies. Germany's banking capital Frankfurt also wound itself into carnival frenzy
on Sunday with a huge street parade watched by 400,000 people who scrambled
to collect 50 tons of sweets scattered to the streetside crowds. The Frankfurt
parade - including 39 bands and 44 floats as well as 51 battalions of
men pretending to be 19th century soldiers - was however dwarfed on Monday
by the country's biggest three parades, in Cologne, Mainz and Düsseldorf. Sigrid Krebs, an organizer of the Cologne parade, said it was comprised
of 99 floats, 124 bands, 440 horses and about 10,000 people who were occupied
during the parade throwing gifts of flowers, chocolates and sweets to
the crowds. (dpa) Links: |
|
More from Germany.info  Newsletters
 Printer-Friendly
Page
Email This Article |
||
|
|||||
|
|||||
