Carnival or "Fastnacht"

Today starts the "high season" of the Carnival in Germany and of course we celebrate it in our region as well!!! Today is called "Altweiberfastnacht" where it's tradition that men in business suits get cut off their ties by women. So usually men wear their oldest ties that day to be on the save side.

This photo is actually taken from a poster announcing the "Schnorrer-Rallye" taking place in Oestrich which means: people dress up in teams (each team has its own theme) and then they walk from bar to bar performing a little "show" (like reciting carnival poems or singing songs or... doing things to make people laugh). At the end of the day the best team gets rewarded. We'll hopefully see them tonight (you never know how many teams are on the road and where they'll show up) so that I can show you some pictures tomorrow.

Btw, Carnival actually starts already in November (11.11.) at 11:11 am (which is supposedly the ultimate carnival time) and ends at Tuesday midnight before Ash Wednesday. So you're gonna see lots of carnival pictures over the next few days...