Weiberfastnacht

The Karneval period is almost at an end (yay).

Rosenmontag is next week (Monday February 20th) and the parades on that day close off the Karneval season that started way back in November, or was it October?

But before we get to Rosenmontag the menfolk have to survive Weiberfastnacht.

The Thursday before Rosenmontag is ladies' day.  But this is not the kind of ladies' day seen at English horse racing, where the women dress in their finery and parade around and all the newspapers pass comment on the ridiculous head gear some wear.  The ladies' day that is an integral part of Karneval allows the women folk to go just a little bit bonkers.

- any men need to be careful not to wear an expensive tie at work because the women hunt in packs with scissors as their chosen weapon, slicing off any unsuspecting male tie, no matter how senior the man, on Weiberfastnacht women can get away with it.
- at schools (high school anyway) the girls will take coloured hair spray as their weapon of choice, I quite expect Ben to return home multicoloured and requiring a shower.
- in Cologne (where Karneval is taken VERY seriously) the festivities start at 10am on Thursday with a street karneval and at 11am specific local dignitaries (male, of course) are paraded and forced to hand over the keys to the city, from 11.11am onwards the women will be in charge, or at least thronging the pubs and bars.

I even have an invite to go out carousing with another mom and her German friends, I really can't face it though, there's just something so forced and artificial about the enforced jollity and hilarity that surrounds Karneval that makes me retreat into my English reserve, I'm sure I have to stay in and wash my hair...


Word for the day; Das Weib - the woman/wife