Carnival 2024 in Mainz

Today is Karnival Monday, especially celebrated in the city of Mainz, about an hour’s train ride away. We took a group of missionary friends with us to go see what the excitement was all about.

Karneval (‘Carnival’) is a very old tradition in Germany, which was originally celebrated to scare away winter spirits. After many months of frost the old Germans were tired of winter. To spook the winter spirits, people wore scary masks. They also sang and danced in the streets to welcome spring.

This tradition carries on still. We went early to find a good spot in the 7 km parade route where 9km of participants would march past us. We ended up watching and waiting for 2 hours before the parade actually began, which gave us time to do some serious people watching and stop at a few bakeries for breakfast treats. Berliners are a traditional Karneval donut, sprinkled with sugar and filled with jam.

Here’s the Karnival memorial downtown:

Even Mr Guttenberg was dressed for the occasion!

While we waited, we saw a few groups pass by on their way to the starting point.

The actual parade started just after noon. We quickly learned that there was only one word we’d need to use the rest of the day: “HELAU!” this is the traditional Karnival shout in Mainz. The people in the parade shouted it to us and we shouted it back. Maybe a thousand times.

Come see through my eye and camera, and enjoy the parade and all the people celebrating today!

2024-2-12 Mainz Karnival (4)

After a couple of hours at the parade route, we took a break to get some Brats, then we made our way back to the train station to head home and go back to work. The celebrations here carried on for the rest of the day and into the night.

It was a fun culture-filled day!