carnival in cologne.

by - Date posted: 2013-02-14 - 28 comments

Carnival season, called Karneval, Fastnacht, or Fasching in Germany, has come to an end. This year, I spent Saturday – Monday of “The Fifth Season” celebrating this grand occasion in Cologne, Germany. In fact, the first carnival parade in the world took place in Köln in 1832 [source] and Cologne’s celebration is still the biggest in Germany. After attending Mardi Gras, I would say it is similar in the concept of drinking at all hours of the day, crowded streets, and overly friendly people, but it also had a little Halloween vibe with all of the Halloween type costumes and candy.

Dressing in Costume

A big part of the carnival tradition is dressing up. Initially, I thought people would just dress up for the parade, but everyone was dressed up all weekend, no matter what time of day. When we got into the city, people continually asked where our costumes were and we ended up returning to the hostel to get into character. All over the city, you will find people dressed as pirates, Indians Native Americans, giraffes, sailors, cowboys, and more. It was chilly, so I thought the animal onesies were certainly the smartest choice. We dressed up as characters from the game Guess Who? and it was also a pretty good plan since we could layer up in whatever clothes we wanted and add accessories. The frames were a bit of an issue at the crowded bars, but they held up well.

Rose Monday Parade

The big event is the carnival parade, which occurs on Rose Monday, which over 1 million spectators attend each year. The parade kicked off at 11 am and seriously trucked on until 4 pm. At the parade, there are many groups filling several floats, marching bands, and men, women, and children in costume. They throw candy, and not just any candy, but often huge chocolate bars and flowers. These flowers often don’t come without a kiss on the cheek from one of the gentleman in the parade.

Tip: we arrived for the parade at about 1030 am and had a great view and front row spots at the parade on Schildergasse near the Krebsgasse intersection. 

Things to Expect

  • Throughout the weekend, you will hear shouts of Kölle Alaaf!, a phrase means “Cologne above all!” You will first hear cries of Kölle and the crowd will respond by shouting Allaf! and throwing one hand up in the air.
  • People will kiss you. This will happen countless times. Just accept it. However, if some random Turkish man unzips your jacket to rub his scruff on your face and kiss your neck, you can then draw the line with a big fat NEIN.
  • It is cold. Layer up and then stuff heat packs in your pants. Ok, I didn’t do this, but I should have – SO DAMN COLD!
  • Don’t plan to do much of the traditional Cologne sight seeing, the cathedral and most museums shut down for days during the carnival festivities.
  • This song is the anthem of the weekend. Learn it. Live it. Love it.

Cologne Train Station

Köln Hauptbanhof

Boarding up Cologne for parade

They boarded it all the storefronts lining the parade route. I am not sure if this was to protect from the flying chocolate bars or drunk people, but I’m thinking it’s probably both.

Guess Who Costume

Drinking a Kölsch bier in my Karneval costume – do you recognize it? The game Guess Who is called Wer Ist Es (Who is it) in German.

Guess Who costumes

Why yes, we did go by Maria and Anita the entire weekend.

Our Spanish friend – our Spanish skills did not suffice, so much for 7 years of that in school.

Maggie lost her costume frame at the bar, at least this Frau was kind enough to not stand on it. Don’t worry, it was recovered with only minor injuries.

Kölner Dom – largest facade of any cathedral in the world and second tallest spires

Cologne bridge

Hohenzollern Bridge

Cologne Love Lock Bridge

Hohenzollern Bridge has several train tracks over it, as well as a pedestrian foot path, where people have hung thousands of love locks since 2008. The bridge is 410 m long.

Cologne Love Lock Bridge

Love Padlocks

Cologne Rhine River

the river Rhine

Triangle Panorama Cologne

view from Cologne Triangle Panorama, 3 Euro entry

Triangle Panorama Cologne

Köln Triangle Panorama

Cologne Dom and Bridge

Cologne Cathedral and Hohenzollern Bridge

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Always fun to run into others from Karlsruhe when you’re traveling!

We accessorized but accidentally left the costumes at home this night.

VW Bug Police Car

Pretty fierce police car huh?

Cologne Rosenmontag parade

Rosenmontag Umzug

Cologne Rosenmontag parade

Oh how we wished we had their view at times – it was cold!

Cologne Rosenmontag parade

Rosenmontag Umzug

Cologne Rosenmontag parade

Rosenmontag Umzug

Rosenmontag Umzug

Cologne Rosenmontag parade

Rosenmontag Umzug

Cologne Horse Float

Rosenmontag Umzug

Cologne Rosenmontag parade

Rosenmontag Umzug

Have you ever visited Cologne?



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28 Comments

  1. Christ the Redeemer holding a barmaid in one hand and a beer in the other trumps all. Sums it all up quite nicely/precisely.

  2. Great photos! I love the one of you with the sunnies and the Cathedral in the background :)
    You definitely experienced a major part of German culture here, although I personally never really understood the Karneval excitement. I think you just have to grow up with all the crazy rituals to love them as much as the people from Cologne do. But I’ve heard some wild stories – like couples even break up for the Karneval season, or have a “it’s Karneval, cheating doesn’t count”-rule :)

    • Hahahaha OH MY GOSH I can’t believe that about the couples haha, those people take their Karneval VERY seriously. I’d love to see them in action during the weekend.

  3. You were so close to me!! We were actually going to go to Cologne’s parade but we stayed for Duisburgs instead!!

  4. It is so fun to have someone explain carnival from a different cultural perspective – you must feel like one of those cultural anthropoligists meeting the villagers ;-)

  5. Da simma dabei, dat is priiiima. Haha. Haven’t heard that song in years! Love your costumes! And the police car. So cool. In my town we say ” Föös geckisch” by the way which means something like “crazy Fasching”.

  7. I haven’t been to Cologne, but it looks amazing and the parade looks like so much fun!

    Guess who is an AWESOME idea for a costume.

  9. I’ve never done the Cologne Karneval thing – everyone I know hates Fasching!!

    Dressing up as Guess Who? characters is possibly the best idea EVER!! So tempted to steal it…

  13. I love your costume idea! All of my British and Canadian friends went up to Cologne for Fasching, but for some reason, I just never really got into it. All of my German friends seem to hate that sort of thing, and I remember we all avoided any sort of Fasching event in Mannheim that weekend like the plague! But your photos do make it look like fun :)

  14. I have always wanted to visit Cologne. It looks so pretty! And that’s the coolest police car ever.
    In France, it’s easier to find a costume to buy at Carnival time than at Halloween.

    • It’s definitely worth a trip – especially because there are so many other great cities around you can venture off to, too! Oh, and same here on the costumes – too funny!

  15. Great post, Alex! I’m definitely going to have to try to get back there for Carnival next year.

    Also, LOL- I just noticed that when I posted about my visit to that city back in August (http://stevenglassman.de/2012/08/27/cologne/) – you commented that you’d love to go for Fasching. Congratulations on achieving your goal! :)

    As a technical aside, I didn’t know you can embed a spotify play button in a blog post. Does the end user have to have Spotify installed to play the song?

    • It was pretty nuts – definitely worth a visit! So cold though, so if you go, I hope you get a little warmer weather.

      Technical side: I have NO idea if others can hear it, but I’ve assumed yes. Hmm…

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