Carneval season in Germany has begun - Imgur Video
Check the comments for more Images.
https://imgur.com/gallery/hurray-carneval-season-germany-has-begun-VZMPUkv
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Today is the LAST day of Karneval before Ash Wednesday.
In France and other areas it's called Mardi Gras - it means the same thing. It's the festive time BEFORE Ash Wednesday when Catholics have to give up things. "On Ash Wednesday, all the fun is over."
I grew up in the 1950's and 60s when it was really awful for Catholics. We had to give up something for Lent. Since I was a little kid I usually gave up candy. But adults were expected to do more - like giving up smoking, alcohol, or sex! (The truth is, my parents never discussed it with us kids.) Also the church had rules like fasting (only tiny meals) and abstinence (no meat on Fridays) and doing penance etc. It was HARD and I was only a kid - it must have been way harder for adults.
This is all a product of the Early Middle Ages when the Church had control over people's lives and also their afterlives. (Scaring people that they would eventually go to heaven or hell.) A lot of this is medieval superstition, and in the modern era we have walked away from most of it.
Catholics aren't like this any more since the 1960's. But this is how we Baby Boomers grew up. We were raised to believe that Lent is the season of preparation for Easter.
Not to cast aspersions on the non-Catholics, but the Protestant version of Lent was a walk in the park compared what we Catholics had to go through. It was a Catholic superstition that if you die with an unconfessed "mortal sin" on your soul, you would go to Hell. It was all about controlling us with the fear of Death, and the fear of Hell.
Whether you call it Karneval / Mardi-Gras / Fasching - it's all over at midnight tonight. Enjoy it while you can!
