Facshing

There is this thing called 'Facshing' that is pretty popular here in Europe. It has something to do with the Catholic church and Easter. Its similar to Mardi Gras, except when we think of Mardi Gras I think of Beads and how you 'earn' those beads.... Facshing is not like that. Its a holiday celebrated over a week or so. Each day is celebrated differently. For example, there is men's night. The men in the village dress up and put on some type of play or something. One day is Women's day. The women in the villages dress up, stand in the streets, and stop passing cars. You must pay a toll if you want to pass them (usually 1 Euro). Each village also has a parade. We went to the one in Bitburg (the bigger village close to our village) as well as the one in Biersdorf. These pictures are from the parade in Bitburg. 

The kids ready to head to the parade. 

Walking through the Marketplatz in Bitburg. A marketplatz is an outdoor shopping area.

The kids love these statues. I'm not sure what it represents, but people are dressed up in goat costumes. 

These are the German cops, Polizei. 

And the parade starts

Here is a local band. If you look closely you might find a beer or two in the horns. Germans really like to drink. 

Each float tossed out candy to the children and poured shots of alcohol to the adults. Basically each float is a bar on wheels. 

This band had a wagon to pull the drinks they were passing out. 

The Facshing parade was a lot of fun. The kids came home with a ton of odd candy. We stayed away from the drinks because we didn't realize they were passing them out to everyone. However, the parade in Biersdorf was much smaller. We had a few small drinks there (most were gross). 

Another tradition that is practiced here in Germany is the welcoming of Spring. This is done the Sunday after Facshing. Each village builds a HUGE cross (usually made out of bails of hay) and then lights it on fire at night. From what I understand, this is to wash away all the sin from Winter and welcome Spring.