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Published: November 12th 2010
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On the 11th day of the 11th month, at exactly 11.11 a.m...
...the entirety of Cologne goes insane! Today is the official start of the Carnival season, which will continue until Ash Wednesday (9th March 2011), culminating in a week-long celebration. And I must say, if that week is anything like what I saw at 11 o'clock in the morning on the streets of Cologne, then it would be advisable to stay well away or come well prepared!
When I arrived at the station just after 11 a.m. I was swept away by a horde of clowns, bees, butterflies, cows, Santas, nurses, policemen and many many other, often indescribable beings. I knew I was here to witness the start of the Carnival, but in my mind I envisaged a colourful parade of vehicles full of people dressed up as flowers, throwing confetti and sweets into the outstretched hands of excited children. After all, this is what parades were like in my childhood days in Belgium. I certainly didn't expect to see nuns and priests with a bottle of beer in each hand, Supermen drunkenly staggering along and a sea of broken glass under my feet. It was as if
Main square
They are all in constume, I promise. this controlled and rigid nation had suddenly falled under the spell of a skillful magician and all hell had broken lose. As I follow the parade from the main station to the square in Heumarkt, I am surrounded by screaming, singing, drumming, belching charicatures. Not a single peson is without beer in their hands, and some have inventively included beer-holding devices into their constume design which allow them to carry many bottles at a time. For once, I feel out of place because I am not wearing a ridiculously coloured spandex suit and a strawberry hat on my head. Who knew that Germany would be the place that made me feel inadequate without fancy dress?
It's certainly not the fairy tale parade that I had expected, despite the abundance of Fairy Grandmothers, Little Red Riding Hoods, Snow Whites and many other fairy tale characters. Yet it does all seem like the real life, adult version of Cinderella. I wonder if exactly at midnight they will all turn back into model citizens again? What is striking is that despite it being a work day it is not only the student population that is indulging in the famous Kölsch beer and
ORDNUNGSAMT
My favourite photo - even in times of chaos, [i]Ordnung muss sein[/i] in Germany. There will be order! Bratwurst sausages sold on every corner. There are just as many people the age of my parents dressed in ridiculous outfits, with sparkly fake eyelashes and whiskers drawn on their cheeks with eye-pencil, sporting a bottle or two in their hands. Everyone who could make an effort has made one, and it is only the tourists in their boring everyday clothes that stand out in this pandemonium. But this is Germany of course, and even in chaos
Ordnung muss sein
. Littered around the streets are uniformed men and women in brightly coloured jackets with the word
Ordnungsamt in large letters on their backs. Public order officers, ensuring that order prevails even on this mad morning, the only ones not holding on to a half empty glass of beer or a mini bottle of Jägermeister and the only ones not participating in the fun. At least they don't look out of place in their uniforms. In fact, seeing a group of them for the first time I naturally assumed that this was their chosen fancy dress theme - after all, I had already seen many a policeman by that point!
On this cold November morning, all of Cologne is out to celebrate.
The pubs and clubs are open, advertising unimaginably cheap beer and mulled wine and the Germans are ready to party! And quite possibly many of them have already been partying all night, judging by how hungrily they munch down their sausages. It is certainly a morning to remember. I have to say I still don't quite know what the parade is in celebration of, but the costumes are certainly a mix worthy of the Bizarre Ball, let alone any Halloween party. Our famous Oxford bops have got some serious competition! As I head back towards the station to meet my language student I run into a couple of drunk Christmas trees.
I shudder to think what this celebration will be like next year, on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year 2011, at exactly 11.11 a.m.
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