Carnival in the Netherlands
Description:
The days of carnival precede the Great Lent. The tradition of carnival is very old, and it is associated with a simple idea: before Lent, you need to eat, get drunk and take a walk. It seems that a long fast is easier to endure if it begins with positive emotions.
Carnival is a time of carefree and unrestrained fun, a time of noisy parades of citizens dressed up in carnival costumes, giant dolls, bizarre structures on wheels, people having fun on the streets and in cafes and restaurants, unusual calls and songs in local dialects.
The most vibrant and noisy carnival processions take place in Maastricht, the capital of Limburg. It is believed that this is the brightest and noisiest carnival in the Netherlands, and it is there that people know how to have fun for real, without “black” madness, as a huge police doll guards the carnival riot.
Not inferior to him in pomp and carnival in the capital of Brabant Den Bose. This city is often called the main carnival city of the Netherlands. In Den Bose, which for the time of the carnival has long been renamed Uteldonk (traditionally, these days all communes in the Netherlands change names), more than 150 carnival societies and this festival annually participates 200 thousand people.
At the same time, the Amsterdam Carnival is held. The holiday is accompanied by performances, costumed shows, songs, dances and folk festivals. Many are ready for any extremes, but most are limited to participating in the parade and dancing.
Carnivals are also held in other cities. In each it has its own specifics, and the inhabitants of each city, of course, consider their carnival the most fun, kind and unusual. Everywhere during the procession and accompanying carnival performances, through satire and humor, attention is drawn to the problems in the cities. This is especially true in the town of Ruhrmond in northern Limburg. During the carnival, it is customary to scold all the existing authorities, and the holiday itself is somewhat anarchist in nature, although there it does not come to excesses.
Order is observed in all cities, and the fun is never overshadowed by bullies. In northeastern Brabant, for example, in the town of Venlo on the border with Germany, it has long been customary to celebrate “peasant weddings” before and during the carnival. Brides and grooms travel during carnival processions in carriages, hay carts or other carriages and greet people gathered on the street. The city of Bergen-op-Zom, which is sometimes called the Dutch "capital of carnival", in the days of the carnival gets a new name - Krabbenhat (the crab hole - in the view of the Dutch is a creepy province in the North Sea shelf, where many crabs used to be). A mandatory detail of the costume of any participant of the carnival is an old curtain or, at worst, a red scarf. Some Bergens sew a whole outfit out of old curtains. Fun fun, and spend on new things is not worth it, thinks a practical Dutchman. Fun and music have been going on in the city for several days, with dozens of orchestras from across the country competing for the title of best to be awarded a 40-litre barrel of beer.
In all cities during the carnival, the city is actually ruled not by the mayor, but by the princess and prince of the carnival, to whom the mayor publicly transfers symbolic keys to the city. These days there is no other power, state or public, and everything is subject to the unspoken law of the noisy and merry Carnival.
The carnival procession passes to the sounds of music and the rumble of drums. During the carnival procession, numerous bizarrely decorated and decorated cars, carriages, platforms, carts, tables and all kinds of other objects put on wheels move through the streets of the city. Nearby are costumed, depicting jesters, heroes of fairy tales and legends, film series, anecdotes, as well as, necessarily with humor, famous people of the city, politicians and simply unknown creatures. They carry colorful flags and pennants. In the procession certainly participate made especially for the carnival huge dolls in medieval and other outfits. Carnivalists dress up in the most inconceivable costumes and such a masquerade is an integral attribute of the holiday. Carnival masks and costumes should scare away evil spirits for a year.
Employees of the Dutch Health Service made sure that during the Carnival, as well as a week before the start of the celebrations, carnival workers could receive condoms free of charge. The sight of boldly naked dancers, in the furious rhythm of samba shaking all their charms, makes a knockout impression on men and the erotic tone for the time of Carnival jumps sharply. The bitter experience of previous years suggests that after the celebration of Carnival, cases of sexually transmitted diseases, including AIDS, rapidly increased.
The apogee of the holiday is a puppet (with figures of fairy-tale characters up to 10 m high) procession along the central street of the city. Each doll shows his number to the accompaniment of his team. Carnival clubs have been working on their preparation since the summer. The goal is to win the contest. Today, such figures are the most complex technical devices with computer control, which last only one day. Once again, only the winning doll can appear in front of the public.
Carnival is not only a festive procession, but also performances of artists, theatrical performances, folk festivals on the streets, fun in cafes and restaurants, where a large number of local beers and other drinks are traditionally consumed. These days, bars are crowded and shops are closed.
Traditionally, carnival fun for the Dutch ends at midnight on the last day of the carnival by eating herring dishes. But every city has its own traditions. So, in Maastricht established "Mauswife" - the figure of a Maastricht housewife going to the market for vegetables, the main symbol of the carnival. At midnight, the culmination of the carnival is the overthrow of the Mauswife. After the Maastricht anthem and carnival song, the Prince drops the Mouswife and the carnival is over, but not forgotten. There are many unusual monuments in the city (such as the Maastricht Spirit and the carnival, of course, the best example of the Maastricht spirit in action). There is also a carnival monument: it depicts a carnival team playing musical instruments and dressed in carnival costumes.
In Bergen, the end of the carnival takes place in its own way - at 23.45 a symbolic stuffed crow falls from the pole in the central square - the carnival is over: zucchini close, the city subsides. Only heaps of empty cans and bottles, carnival ribbons and serpentine cover the asphalt.