I Love a Parade!

New Orleans has Mardis Gras and Rio has Karneval...but did you know that Germany has it's own version called "Fasching"?

Well it does and it is a BIG deal here.  It is a celebration which is rooted both in catholicism  and paganism.  It's catholic roots are a celebration before the beginning of lent and the pagan roots are a very ancient tradition of dressing up in costumes to scare away the demons of winter and welcome spring.  Here in our area they celebrate with a big two hour parade through Ramstein village. 

Karma and I drove to the edge of the village and then walked toward the center of town.  They charge you about a euro and give you a souvenier pin to wear showing you have paid.  It also gets you in to a party in town later that night.  The streets were lined with adults and kids in all kinds of costumes.  It was hilarious!  We were surrounded by locals and it was just so much fun to experience it as they do!  

The thing that makes this parade unique besides it seeming like Halloween in February is that they celebrate with drinking...lots of drinking!  They had the cutest little "ski bar" set up along the route made out of snow and skis.  Some of the parade watchers had little trays sitting on their strollers that were full of many different colored shots.  Many of the parade entrants were carrying their various drinks of choice along the route.  I think it helps them all stay warm. Even the polizei get into it...the one on the green motorcycle was offered a drink from someone along the route and he was happy to oblige :)

They also had some really cute brezel (pretzel) wagons that sold yummy pretzels and berliners.  Karma bought us one...it was sooo good!

They had some very fun parade entries.  Lots of music and dancers.  Sometimes it seemed like they were just all trying to out do each other with the crazy, over the top costumes.  Some of my favorites were the smurfs, the sinister looking clowns, the mermen (no, not the "mermens, as in LDS"  hahaha!)  The soccer head was pretty funny

All in all, it was just a really fun afternoon.  The air was chilly but amazingly enough the sun was shining and the sky was blue.  It was a perfect day to be outside enjoying one of the traditions here in beautiful Deutschland.

We have been enjoying watching the olympics.  We get a lot of coverage on several channels.  I just love the olympics and it brings back some great memories of volunteering for the Salt Lake games in 2002.  
We also have sad memories of those games.  Mike's dad, Chuck, died unexpectedly during the 2002 olympics.    He will always be in our hearts and memories. We just miss him so much!   


This is one of my favorite pictures of Chuck with two of his grandkiddies...our son, Pat and  our daughter, Codi in 1979. Oh, how he loves all his grandkids!


One last note.  LDS President Dieter Uchtdorf,
second counselor in the first presidency of the church was in Berlin, Germany this weekend for a regional conference.  We attended a satellite broadcast this morning.  It was all in German with a translator.  It was a very interesting experience.  All they hymns were in German and the choir sang in German.  Somedays I just still pinch myself and am in awe that I actually live here and can have these experiences.  I miss you all, but I really do love it here!


love and miss you all, 
-corri