Brrrr!! And I am loving it!! Today was even colder!! The thermometer that we have in the boys' room measured 3.9 F this morning!!! All the trees are covered in a fine, white outline giving them that Hollywood snow scene look. With all the snow still on the ground and the winter white that the trees are wearing, it just doesn't get any more beautiful. I asked my students last night about the skiing, and they confirmed what my husband said to me - that most people would not go skiing after a big snow like that for at least a day due to avalanche hazards. And sure enough, I caught on the news last night a map showing where the avalanche risk was. My husband said his boss, who lives in ski country, could hear the pops from the explosives followed by a big rumble. Normally, he can only hear the pop.
Today, I conclude the Faschings follies with a bit of anti-climatic information. From my students and from the Internet, I have been able to glean the remaining names of the special days during Faschings, but I have not been able to figure much out as to why they are called what they are or their significance. My students told me each day was just another day to have parties and dress up in costume. My questions seemed to have caught my students off-guard, who had not considered the why of these days. It is kinda like asking "Why do we have Labor Day, and besides a chance to have a party and a cookout, what is its purpose."
Today is, of course, Weiberfasching. I really am looking forward to the festivities tonight and to see what will go on or if it is just another chance to have folks get together and enjoy a meal and some drink together. Tomorrow is Rußigerfreitag, followed by Faschingssamstag, Faschingssonntag, and then Rosenmontag with Faschingsdienstag wrapping it all up.
Rußigerfreitag means "sooty" Friday. It is tradition on this day to paint your face black, like soot. It is also considered the day of fools, and it is the day that many children, including my youngest, will have a party in class. He is to bring a camera and a game to school. I just hope he doesn't come home with black all over his clothes. This day is also sometimes called Blue Friday because everyone calls in sick that has been out too late from Weiberfasching parties. There is also a general lack of parties and events other than for the children in schools because this is religiously frowned upon due to the Friday before Easter being the observed day that Jesus was crucified, thus Fridays, in general, are off limits to a point.
This leaves the weekend as the bigger party days. Saturday and Sunday are both just carnival days. Faschingssamstag and Faschingssonntag indicate that. Saturday is most likely to be the bigger of the two days since Blue Laws are still very active in Germany. (Blue Laws are laws that the USA used to have in place to allow workers a day off from having to open their stores, and to make sure people had a day to be better people (no alcohol sales and the likes on Sunday). Kids - do some research and find out when the Blue Laws went away in your state and if there are still any Blue Law states left that still follow these rules. Can you think of local Blue Laws that are still in effect that may not be a statewide law?) Many parties and parades will be on Saturday, but there will be some parades and events going on in various villages on Sunday as well, but most, if not all, stores will not be open.
Monday is called Rosenmontag. This is the big day for cities like Cologne and Mainz to hold their big parades. In these bigger cities, many business are closed so that employees can enjoy the parades. Outside these cities, there are some business that may close, but not all will. This year, there are many more businesses closing for either the first two days of next week or all of next week due to the economy. But, this is not an official state holiday, so workers still have to take the day as vacation. The brothers Grimm in their dictionary of word origins believe the name of this day may have been a word shift from Middle High German where the word is Rasenmontag, meaning turf or earth Monday. I also saw a reference that said it could have come from a Kölsch word that means to run: roose montag. There is also some (confusing, in my opinion) thought that this is related religiously to the day that falls 4 weeks before the Sunday that is designated by the church as Rose Sunday (Laetare Sunday). On this day in the 11th century, the Pope bestowed a golden rose to a deserving people as a blessing. Because I am having to read a translated version of this, some of what it said just plain didn't make sense. Therefore, this is the best information I could gather, but I realize it doesn't quite explain things. What I did find out, though, is that the Rosenmontag name was not important until Cologne had their first really big parade on this day in 1823, where the name and customs spread across Germany.
Lastly, in this Faschings season, we have Faschingsdienstag or Veilchendienstag, which is often referred to as either Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday in the USA. This day may also have some parades and festivities, but all businesses shut down at lunchtime. This is the last chance for everyone to go a little crazy and indulge in all those things that they may give up during Lent. But sharply at midnight on Tuesday, all partying stops.
The words for the day are refreshers words we had back in the fall: the days of the week, since so many were brought up in this blog. Monday - der Montag (the first day of the week on German calendars - not Sunday), Tuesday - der Dienstag, Wednesday - der Mittwoch, Thursday - der Donnerstag, Friday - der Freitag, Saturday - der Samstag, and Sunday - der Sonntag.
The question for the day is "What is German life like from Ash Wednesday until Easter?"
Auf Wiedersehen,
Frau Spitzer
