24 Festive Tasks: Carnival

 

Square Ten

Book: Read a book that involves costumes / fancy dress / mummery, that has masks on the cover, or that is set in Germany; or read a book that involves a character whose profession is often used as fancy dress (e.g., a policeman, doctor, nurse, soldier, clergyman, or virtually any other profession associated with some sort of uniform or professional robes / wardrobe).

 

 

Death of a Dustman by M.C. Beaton (read by Graeme Malcolm)

Not only is the MC a police constable in a highland village who is always out of uniform when the higher-ups arrive but the titular dustman is given a ridiculous uniform to wear. I like the series. Quick light-hearted reads even though they are murder mysteries.

 

Task 1: Carnival – including its first day in the Rhine Valley, Nov. 11 – is essentially one big party; fuelled, wherever in the world it is celebrated, by traditional local food / snacks and drinks. In the Rhineland, these include special local varieties of potato pancakes / latkes (Reibekuchen or, in the local dialect, “Riefkooche”) and donuts (Krapfen) as well as, of course, the local brew ( Kölsch ). Also, while there are typically no parades on Nov. 11, the Rhineland Carnival finishes – in February / March, immediately preceding Lent and at the same time as the rest of the world has its versions of Carnival – with a series of huge parades featuring music bands, dance companies, and floats (often with supersized papier mâché figurines satirizing recent political or otherwise significant events or public figures). From atop those floats, the crowd of onlookers are showered with bound bouquets (“Strüssche”), caramel candy (“Kamelle”), chocolate, and other sweets by the bucketful.

So: Post a picture of your Carnival meal of potato pancakes / latkes or donuts and your local brew of choice (alcoholic or non). Caramel candy or chocolate for dessert and flowers as table decoration are optional.

Hmmm, so maybe this is where the latkes for Hanukkah came from? Or maybe was vice versa? Who knows. But, it was not unusual for one community to adopt and adapt foods from surrounding communities. Food is as universal as it is local.

Since, our traditional time for eating latkes is during Hanukkah, I pushed this task off til December (because I really have to watch my fat intake). This past Sunday, the family gathered, our only chance during the 8 day festival, for latkes. We serve them with a choice of applesauce and/or sour cream and then fill the table with other goodies that just seem to fit the theme. This year it was lox (store-bought instead of a home-made gravlax), my first attempt at chopped herring (10 minutes in a food processor).

 

 

Task 2: Burn a few calories from the meal above and have a dance party. Tell us what songs / artists get your toes taping. Let's build a playlist!

 

Good question. I'm so busy with a book plugged into my ears that I almost never play music in the house and when I am in the car, it is the classical music station.  I can't tell you the name of any of the current singers/bands; what I hear these days just doesn't do it for me -- I think I stopped paying attention in the 1980s.  If I were to choose a playlist of dance-able music it would all be music from the 60s and early 70s-- Beatles, Stones, Clapton, James Taylor, Motown,  even ABBA, just to name a few.

Bonus Task #1: In the Rhineland, the first day of the “main” carnival celebrations (in February or March, preceding Lent) is called “The Women’s Carnival” (“Weiberfastnacht” or, in local dialect, “Wieverfastelovend” – don’t even try to pronounce that; not even German native speakers get it right). It is celebrated nowhere more vigorously than (and is in fact believed to have originated) in the part of Bonn that TA calls her home, a district on the right (Eastern) bank of the Rhine. On this day, the mayors of towns, cities, and the cities’ administrative districts hand over the keys of their respective town / city hall to that year’s local Carnival princess for a day’s worth of government. (Read: For a day’s worth of wild partying inside city hall.)

Tell us: For what 3 things do you think the women might use their “day of government” on Women’s Carnival (in addition to or other than for partying)?

Bonus Task #2: Any man unwise enough to be found wearing a necktie during Women’s Carnival will have his tie cut off, as a symbolic curtailment of male rule. Obviously, men who don’t want to play along don’t wear a tie on that day in the first place, but those who want to be good sports about it wear … what? Tell us 3 things you think they might put on in order to spare their tailormade best silken neckware the indignity of being mutilated by a woman’s scissors and still give those scissors something to cut off.