Gillian Thomas put on fancy dress and joined the crowds to celebrate Carnival in Mainz.

There has to be a first for everything. A particularly memorable first for me was on a chilly February day in Germany. Dressed as a convict in black and white striped trousers and top, I sheepishly emerged from my smart hotel bedroom to join a group of friends for breakfast.

But as I made my way to the buffet no one was remotely surprised by my bizarre attire. For this was Rosenmontag - Rose Monday - in Mainz, the high point of the town’s carnival season and a bank holiday. It’s a day when you stand out from the crowd if you’re not wearing fancy dress.


In costume and ready for the fun

As in many Germany towns, particularly those along the Rhine including Dusseldorf, Cologne and Bonn, the pre-Lent carnival period is the ‘fifth season’ of the year, an excuse not only for dressing up and merrymaking but for elaborate parades around the streets. Known locally as Fassnacht, it is a great time of year for visitors to join in the fun with the locals.

Dressed for the occasion, with thermal underwear and a warm jacket under my stripes, as the temperature outdoors was well below freezing with a dusting of snow, I set out with similarly-dressed friends to swell the crowds on the streets.

We were not the only convicts as the costume had been on special offer at the local supermarket. There were also plenty of witches and sheiks as well as all kinds of animals. Wigs, masks and painted faces were much in evidence too.

All around the town centre, stalls were selling mulled wine, hot dogs, chips and miniature bottles of flavoured schnapps which came in sets of ten to be worn as a belt. They were certainly welcome for combatting the cold.

Also helping to get everyone into the spirit of the day, the carnival cry of “Hellau” often spread through the crowds, a tradition always accompanied by three waves of the right arm.


The festive crowd enjoying the spectacle

We slowly made our way along the busy streets to the Town Hall where we had tickets for a stand erected opposite it. Another across the road was reserved for the mayor and local dignitaries. Most people of course simply stand somewhere along the route.

The grand parade, the biggest in Germany, sets off each year at precisely 11 minutes past 11 am on its seven kilometre circuit of the town, taking over three hours to pass by. It is certainly an impressive spectacle with around 9,000 people taking part on elaborately decorated floats, on horseback or on foot.


Horses on parade

There are marching bands with flag-twirling majorettes, dancers, clowns and jesters. Everyone is dressed in flamboyant costumes - lots of colourful satin breeches, flared skirts and hats with florescent feathers, noblemen wearing medieval-style uniforms and others in animal masks.

Political satire is always a feature too. Several of the floats had enormous papier-mache caricature figures of local and national politicians, poking fun at their policies. Visitors are of course unlikely to get the jokes but they always slowed down as they passed the mayor to make sure their points were not lost on him.


A typically brightly coloured float

As the parade processes slowly by, the people on the floats toss sweets, bars of chocolate, waffles, pretzels and even packets of sausages into the crowd. Everyone, especially children, is keen to catch what they can, so a carrier bag comes in handy!

Mainz carnival’s origins were religious, dating back to the 13th century. Special carnival societies, around 100 of them, exist solely for the purpose of organising it each year.

A series of events take place in the weeks before the Rosemontag parade (7 March in 2011), beginning with an open-air concert on 11 November at 11am on Schillerplatz, the town’s main square.

The main carnival period starts on the Thursday before Lent with Ladies Day when women dress up as witches complete with black wigs and broomsticks. There’s also a children’s parade and Fassnacht’s Fair along the banks of the Rhine. Mardi Gras -‘Fat Tuesday’ - marks the end of feasting before fasting begins on Ash Wednesday (the first day of Lent) and lasts until Easter.

The top Carnival events are the Children's Costume and the “Impressed-Fools"` parades in the Downtown, Gonsenheim, and Mombach neighborhoods and the Fassnacht's Fair along the banks of the Rhine, at the Rathaus and on Gonsenheim's Juxplatz (4-8 March 2011). The Fools' Guard Parade through the inner City and the Finthen neighborhood is on 6 March, followed by the enormous parade next day on Rosenmontag which is an official holiday, just to prove how serious the Mainz people are about their tomfoolery!