Germany, lots of carnival. In many regions the current carnival traditions date back to the Napoleonic era and were originally invented to mock the French. In some regions, they date back way further and are more about warding off evil spirits and shit.
were originally invented to mock the French Sounds like a typical European tradition
Interesting! Is there an agenda of carnivals available somewhere? Which ones are the biggest ones, or the more unique?
The biggest carnival events take place in the Rhineland, with the Carnival parades in Cologne, Düsseldorf, and Mainz on Shrove Monday being by far the biggest single events. (The carnivals in the Rhineland are of the “mocking the French” variety)
The older flavour of carnival is mostly celebrated in the South with the main events taking place on Fat Thursday
Generally throughout the entire carnival season (regionally known as “The Fifth Season”), there are all sorts of carnival parties (basically dress up in some sort of costume and get drunk) and “carnival sessions” (basically big comedy/entertainment shows) with carnival speeches, often organised by carnival societies.
Thank you for his, I’ll probably make dedicated posts on those dates!
The Basel Fasnacht is also one with a lot of history and has UNESCO World Heritage status
In noethern Italy, in Ivrea, there is a famous carnival parade, where thousands people throw oranges at themselves, from and to the parade floats. Being an orange thrower for a parade float is a big honor and people train for months to be chosen. There are different teams with different costumes and strategies, at the end of the carnival, the best team on a float and the best team on foot get awarded by a committee.
In Belgium, at the end of February and in March, there is the “Big Fire” tradition, as a way to celebrate the end of winter. I’ll post a dedicated article once the first happens: https://www.itinari.com/the-grands-feux-ardennes-oldest-tradition-rlbs
In the Netherlands cities and towns (below the rivers) all get their Carnaval name, a prince carnaval has been elected and the multi-day party usually starts with a parade of carnaval floats that groups have been working on since 11th of November (11-11).
Each town has slightly different traditions in terms of dress but mostly it is just costumes all round and beer… sooo much beer. Bars are redecorated for the occasion and even have specialised window boarding as part of the decoration. And the municipal clean up crews work double overtime.
