Carnival and Fasnacht

The German Festival Year

Course 1 · Chapter 4 · Three Kings, Carnival and Fasnacht

After the Christmas season the German calendar turns to one of its most regional festivals. In Cologne and Mainz, crowds in costume line the streets for a procession, in the south-west wooden-masked figures leap through the old towns, and in much of the north and east most people barely notice the season at all. This chapter starts with Epiphany on 6 January, then follows the "fifth season" of carnival through its regional names and forms, and ends by testing the common claim that carnival is an ancient pagan survival. Names, dates and figures are from general knowledge and flagged "check".

Three Kings: 6 January

The feast

Epiphany, 6 January, marks the visit of the Magi to the infant Jesus in the Christian tradition. It is a public holiday only in some states, including Baden-Württemberg, Bavaria and Saxony-Anhalt (check the current list).

The Sternsinger

Children dressed as the three kings, with a star on a pole, go from door to door, sing, and chalk a blessing above the door in the form "20*C+M+B+" followed by the year (check the formula and its meaning, which is explained in different ways). They collect donations for children's charities, in a campaign organised by the Catholic Church since 1959 (check).

Cologne's shrine

Cologne Cathedral holds a large gold shrine said to contain the relics of the Three Kings, which were reported to have been brought to Cologne from Milan in 1164 (check). The shrine explains why the kings feature in the city's arms and why the cathedral is a pilgrimage site.

What Carnival Is

  • The idea. A period of licensed revelry, masks and mockery of authority before the fast of Lent. Ash Wednesday ends it, and the following forty days are the Lenten season (check the length).
  • The word. Karneval, Fastnacht, Fasching and Fasnet are the four main German names. The origin of "carnival" itself is debated, and a popular explanation (Latin carne vale, "farewell to meat") is only one of the theories (check).
  • The days. The peak is the week before Ash Wednesday: Weiberfastnacht or "Women's Carnival" on the Thursday, when women symbolically take over, then the weekend, Rosenmontag (Rose Monday, with the largest processions) and Shrove Tuesday (check the names and what happens in each place).
  • The date moves. Because Easter moves, so does carnival: it can fall in January or February (check the rule).
Region and name (check each)Character
Rhineland, Cologne and Düsseldorf: KarnevalOrganised by carnival societies, with sessions in halls, a "Dreigestirn" of Prince, Peasant and Virgin in Cologne (played by men), and large Rosenmontag processions where sweets (Kamelle) are thrown to the crowd. The cry is "Alaaf" in Cologne and "Helau" in Düsseldorf and Mainz.
Mainz and Hesse: FastnachtFamous for political satire in speeches and for a televised evening show of sketches and songs. The cry is "Helau".
Bavaria and parts of the east: FaschingBalls, costumes and doughnut-like pastries, with Munich's Viktualienmarkt traders' dance as a well-known event. Less street procession than the Rhineland.
Swabian-Alemannic south-west: Fasnet or FasnachtAssociated with "Narrenzünfte" (fools' guilds) and carved wooden masks and costumes, with a "Narrensprung" parade of figures. Rottweil and Elzach are among the best-known places (check).

The Fifth Season: Cologne's Calendar

  • 11 November at 11:11. The carnival season is opened each year at this moment (check the date and time and why 11 was chosen, which is explained as a fool's number or a play on equality, both unproven).
  • Pause and resumption. The season mostly rests during Advent and Christmas, and resumes in January with sessions and balls.
  • The 1823 reform. Cologne's carnival is usually dated in its modern organised form to 1823, when a committee was set up and a first Rosenmontag procession was held, a response to earlier bans and to the era after French rule (check the details).
  • Clubs and structure. The societies, uniforms and ranks, some of which mock military uniforms, were created in the 1800s (check).
  • The end. In Cologne a straw figure called the Nubbel is burned on the night before Ash Wednesday, taking the blame for the sins of the season (check).

Not Everywhere, and Not Always

  • Protestant north. Carnival is much weaker in the Protestant north, in Hamburg and Bremen for instance, where the pre-Lent tradition was not part of the local church year (check).
  • The East. Fasching had places in the GDR, with some towns continuing and the activity growing again after 1990 (check).
  • Cancellations. Processions have been called off at times, as in 1991 during the Gulf War and in 2021 during the pandemic (check the years and reasons).
  • The Nazi period. Carnival societies were brought into line under the Nazi regime, and some floats and speeches carried antisemitic themes. Cologne and Mainz have since studied and acknowledged this (check the details).
  • Debates today. Costumes that mock ethnic groups, as well as satire about politicians, are argued over each year (check current examples).

Is Carnival an Ancient Pagan Survival?

Position (check each)The argument
Pagan survivalPopular accounts and some 19th-century writers linked masks and noise to rites to drive out winter. The evidence is mostly a resemblance, and an unbroken line of custom is not shown.
Medieval Christian calendarMany historians point to the pre-Lent feasting and licence that grew in the Middle Ages, in a church year that required fasting, and note records of fools' feasts and pre-Lent revels from the late Middle Ages.
19th-century revivalThe modern forms, such as uniforms and societies, processions and the fifth season, are largely 1800s creations, and the Rhenish form was shaped by middle-class societies.
What can be said The best-supported statement is that pre-Lent revelry is recorded in the Middle Ages and tied to the church calendar, that its modern organised form is largely from the 1800s, and that a direct pagan origin is claimed but not shown. Masks and processions may echo earlier practices, but similar customs elsewhere are not proof of descent.
A British comparison Britain has carnival-like days with different roots: Shrove Tuesday pancakes, Up Helly Aa in Shetland (largely a 19th-century fire festival with older roots claimed, check), the Notting Hill Carnival from the 1960s Caribbean community, and Bonfire Night. Edinburgh's Beltane Fire Festival on Calton Hill, started in 1988, is a revived or invented festival that claims a Celtic basis (check), a close match for the German question of tradition and invention.
Check the details Dates of events, customs of each town, the shape of the Dreigestirn and the wording of the cries differ by place, and carnival organisers publish their own histories. Verify with the society or town and with a historian of custom, and treat origin stories as claims.

Exercises

Exercise 1

Make a table of the four regional forms of carnival in the chapter, with one distinctive feature of each and the place it is most associated with.

→ Solution
Exercise 2

Use the six-question method on the claim "German carnival is an ancient pagan survival" and write a careful replacement sentence.

→ Solution
Exercise 3

Compare German carnival with Edinburgh's Beltane Fire Festival or Hogmanay: what is claimed about their age, what is documented and what does each show about invented tradition.

→ Solution

Quick Reference

  • 6 January: Epiphany; Sternsinger collect for charity
  • Names: Karneval (Rhineland), Fastnacht (Mainz), Fasching (Bavaria), Fasnet (south-west)
  • Key days: Weiberfastnacht, Rosenmontag, Ash Wednesday
  • Cologne: season opens 11 November at 11:11; modern form from 1823 (check)
  • Origin: medieval pre-Lent revelry is recorded; pagan descent is claimed, not shown