carnival
An early start to Rose Monday on Cologne’s streets
A carnival woman throws confetti before the start of the Rose Monday parade in Cologne. photo
© Oliver Berg/dpa
Kamelle, Kamelle: On Rose Monday, numerous trains with theme cars are expected in the carnival strongholds, the largest of which is in Cologne. For some Jecken the day started early.
The first Jecken are still in North Rhine-Westphalia when it’s dark Started on Rose Monday. Some early risers arrived in Cologne city center in their colorful costumes a good three hours before the start of the traditional “Zochs”. You want to be in the front row on the side of the road when the floats finally come by, said a carnival participant who was traveling with a group of friends. Other Jecken hurried past to find a supposedly better place for the camel dance a little further away.
The largest Rose Monday procession in Germany is said to be eight and a half kilometers long, and Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst (CDU) wants to mingle with the foot soldiers.
Traffic light politicians dominate Rose Monday parades
The street carnival reaches its climax with the Rose Monday parades. While the fools had to contend with constant rain on Weiberfastnacht, the weather forecast for today is at least a little better: large amounts of rain are not expected, the German Weather Service said.
The politicians of the traffic light coalition can take comfort in the fact that on this day they are finally “larger than life” – larger than life. As slightly swaying cardboard mates, they glide past cheering crowds on the satirical wagon. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) suffers a shipwreck in Mainz as a one-eyed captain with an eye patch, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) acts like a bull in a china shop in Cologne because she occasionally expresses her opinion to autocrats, and Finance Minister Christian Lindner ( FDP) acts – also in Cologne – as a piggy bank, a perhaps not entirely brand new idea. Economics Minister Robert Habeck (Greens) appears in Mainz as Flying Robert, remembering the character from “Struwwelpeter” because he is losing his grip on the ground with his heating law, while in Cologne he is pushing his party colleague Ricarda Lang on an “arbitrary ride”.
As always, the people of Düsseldorf have not yet revealed their motives. Their float builder, Jacques Tilly, is the best-known German carnival float designer, whose figures are even requested from abroad. His designs have already been carried by demonstrators in Rome and London at rallies against the Catholic Church and Brexit.