It is carnival weekend in Germany. Since a long time carnival has developed into an important tradition in parts of Germany. But why do we celebrate carnival?
The answer
is simple for a carnevalist: it's just a lot of fun! And it is a tradition in
which everyone can get involved - from children to old age and with all their
talents. The so-called fifth season is a time when creativity explodes. We
simply celebrate life!
This brings
us very close to the historical origins. Around 600 A.D. Pope Gregory
introduced the forty-day Lent before Easter. In the days before, for the last
time before Easter, there were exuberant celebrations, with masquerades and
dances, parodic speeches on the church and secular rulers as well as smaller plays.
This form of carnival was mainly supported by the guilds - for Nuremberg this
has been well documented since the Middle Ages. As a counterpoint to the
abstinence of Lent, the carnival definitely has a religious origin.
From about
1200 A.D. the Fastnacht (as the carnival is also called) is increasingly
mentioned in sources. The partly vehement criticism of the authorities and the
clergy led in the course of the Middle Ages again and again to censorship,
prohibitions of the masquerade or complete prohibitions of the carnival.
Criticism of the powerful is still an important part of the traditions today -
with mockery by speakers or the symbolic disempowerment of mayors by conquering
city keys and city coffers.
A direct
reference to earlier Germanic winter festivals is no longer assumed today, even
if there are influences. Ecclesiastical and courtly rituals are gradually
adopted and incorporated into carnival traditions. In the breadth of the urban
population, however, the festival loses its ritual binding power over the
centuries and degenerates more and more into a feast - partly also connected
with riots. In Protestant areas, carnival traditions disappeared after the reformation,
as excesses were generally frowned upon. The carnival traditions were therefore
able to continue mainly in Catholic regions of the former Holy Roman Empire of
the German Nation, in today's Germany mainly along the Rhine and Main rivers.
In 1823,
new structures were created in Cologne's upper middle-class milieu, which led
to the revival of carnival in a 'civilized' way. Association structures,
meetings and the current form of carnival processions were created. The figure
of the carnival prince as ruler over the festival (later mostly in female
company as a couple of princes) also appears. As a persiflage on the military, ‘Carnival
guards’ are created, which fool around with drill exercises and military rank
signs (orders). From parodic marches and folk dance elements, guard dances were
created, which developed through influences from ballet and acrobatics to
today's usual guard dance.
The new
traditions spread quickly from Cologne along the Rhine and Main rivers and are
today a defining feature of the Rhenish carnival. In Southwest Germany,
however, this tradition is abandoned and early modern traditions are reverted.
This archaic-looking version of carnival, the Swabian-Alemannic carnival, may
seem older, but it is in fact a development of the early twentieth century.
