Carnaval
Now let me introduce you to my reason of not posting much anywhere these days, It‘s an tradition in the part of The Netherlands I live in. This is called Carnaval.
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| Got the faces of my sister & the other people hidden(, not that they would mind being on my blog..) |
The photo above with me and my sister is 2 years old now. I
remember how much fun we had back then, but for some reason I‘m growing out of
it. I don‘t really experience the same fun as I did 2 years ago. (Mostly only Tuesday
I enjoy the most, less crowded)
However, let me explain Carnaval to you. Officially
it‘s a 3 days (4-5 nowadays since Friday and Saturday have been added..) long
celebration of fun, music and craziness. Perhaps it‘s something like Halloween,
because people dress up in anything they want. Only there‘s no theme, like
Halloween people mostly dress up like something spooky right? You just wear anything
you want, crazy (itsy) wigs. I can‘t do much with my own hair, so the long wigs aren‘t so bad to wear for a few hours. It‘s also not comparable with cosplay. At these
crowded places where people drink a lot of beer, it‘s not the best idea to be wearing
an expensive costume. Of course dressed as Loki would be awesome.. I usually go for pirate, angel/devil (only this year I‘m
leaving the devil behind..). On the photo I tried to be a powerpuff girl, because
back then I still had my hair dyed red. And a few years ago I tried to be Scar
from the Lion King. Sprayed my hear black, Lion costume, some hairspray, a little lion-like
facial paint: trying to make the scar at my eye. (Everyone thought I was a cute lion, so
guess I failed a little on that..)
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| On Sunday the day always starts with a parade with handmade chariots like this one. (photo: Brabants Dagblad) |
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| March 3rd 2019: Angel (with and without wig) Oh and also every year people have their own songs, to dance and have fun on. Some are really nice. Now, only 2 days to go, I hope the weather will be a little better.. What are your traditions? |
Cool! I didn't realize that The Netherlands, or at least part of them celebrated Carneval. I'm from the New Orleans, Louisiana area in the U.S., so we're busy celebrating Mardi Gras, which looks an awful lot like your Carneval. Big parades with lots of floats (what you call chariots) and partying. A lot of the smaller parades have handmade floats, but the biggest, fanciest ones go to professional float makers. Costumes, music, dancing, drinking all are big. Do your parades do throws? Where the riders will toss beads and trinkets at the crowd? It's so cool learning about other places that celebrate big before lent.
ReplyDeleteHi thank you for your comment! (I‘m responding with my personal account, for some reason it doesn‘t work with GoddessofLoki.) Sorry for my late reaction, I hadn‘t seen it earlier.
DeleteActually here at Carnaval every town or city has their own choses prince & princess. The last chariot of the parade is tradition to be the chariot of the prince (and also the former princes are on it). They toss candy (wrapped into papers) to the crowds. It‘s funny and all the kids then go collect all the candy after the parade has passed. And after the parade it‘s indeed gathering together with friends and family in costumes, drinking and having fun on music.
This year on tuesday (the last day) I visited something which is new since a couple of years. They give people, mainly kids to perform on the stage called: 'Dörp (our town name in dialect) has Talent. It‘s very fun for the kids.