Experiencing this is evidently occasionally the yearning of all people. In the Middle Ages, people had fun dancing in churches during the carnival days before Lent or placing a bishop's hat on a donkey, throwing feces around, and saying and doing things that one would not mention decently. Today, the situation is different. First, the Reformation abolished Lent, which eliminated the necessity to indulge fully beforehand. Then, the once strict social order has loosened more and more, a solid top that one could overturn no longer exists. And finally, (lower-class) television has ensured that obscene talk, humorless jokes, and drunken laughter became part of everyday life. Today is carnival every day.
Thus, the Rhineland carnival is something completely different: a massive, well-organized industry that, similar to the holiday industry, offers pleasure to hundreds of thousands of people every season from November 11th to Ash Wednesday and provides a good income for thousands. The most famous carnival in North Rhine-Westphalia is that of Cologne, closely followed by Düsseldorf. But there is also one in Eschweiler, Bonn, Aachen, Mönchengladbach, and Neuss; indeed, even the Westphalians celebrate carnival. Or at least try: In Dortmund, 'Geierabend' is part of the fixed program. And even in Münster, there is a Rose Monday parade.
In Cologne, carnival is called Fasteleer or Fastelovend, and the call of the fools is "Kölle Alaaf!" The many hundreds of activities of the season are organized by a festival committee of the Cologne carnival societies, which also elect the so-called Dreigestirn: Prince, Farmer, and Maiden. From Weiberfastnacht onwards, the street carnival begins; before that, meetings are held within the associations in halls, but in costumes. Now the parades begin; some say that the Cologne "Schull- un Veedelszöch" (the carnival parades of schools and neighborhoods) are the most beautiful. But the most important is certainly the "Zoch" on Rose Monday, the oldest and largest in Germany overall, which up to a million people celebrate at the roadside each year. Around 150 tons of candies and other materials, called Kamelle, are then thrown from the floats into the crowd. One must either participate in the carnival in Cologne (and then the participation can escalate into a euphoric experience in various forms) or run away from it, which not a few Cologne residents do – during the crazy days, there are 50 parades raging through the city. And day and night, the streets are full of singing, drinking, swaying revelers.
In the Düsseldorf carnival as well, the Rose Monday parade is the highlight of the fifth season, except that here the battle cry is "Helau!" And the organizing body in the state capital is called, somewhat more elegantly than in Cologne, Comitee Düsseldorfer Carneval. In general, things are less robust here during the carnival days than in the cathedral city. While in Cologne, the more cabaret-like Stunksitzung has developed into the highlight of the alternative carnival, the "Tuntenlauf" on carnival Saturday has advanced to the second peak of the Düsseldorf carnival. By the way, the first Rose Monday parade was organized in Cologne in 1823 as a revival of the ancient street carnival; it became a model for other cities. During wars, there was usually no parade; not even during the Gulf War in 1991.
