Karneval Time

In many places throughout Germany, there’s a festival called Karneval that takes place. There is a religious reason behind it – it’s the last big celebration before Lent – but many Germans also use it as an excuse to dress up and party with friends. During the festivals, there are floats, costumes, candy, and, of course, beer.

The Karneval celebrations where I live lasted a few days, so I was able to go to more than one festival. I was with Mariel in Hannover on Saturday, so we were able to see Hannover’s Karneval parade. There were so many different costumes and floats all throughout the city; it was a really cool experience.

On Monday, we had no school for Karneval, so my host family and I went to a town near us to celebrate. The weather was really bad for a while, but when it finally cleared up, we were able to go outside and see the parade. I dressed up as a cat, Lillian was an Indian, and Josie was Minnie Mouse. Everyone really went all out with their costumes during the parade. Lillian also had two giant bags with her just to pick up all the candy that the people on the floats threw at us. By the end of the parade, we had collected more candy than we had during Halloween. It was a really fun weekend, full of festivities.