Carnival is here

Religious history divides the Netherlands into two regions. The northern part of the country is Dutch Reformed, while the south (where we live) is Catholic. Carnival is celebrated in the Catholic region as the last hurrah before the fasting of Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. Although most Dutch are not religious and they won’t fast during Lent, they sure know how to party for Carnival. Kids have the whole week off school, and many businesses are closed for at least Monday and Tuesday.

The Carnival season actually began on November 11, when the “prince” of each town and his council were elected. Every town takes on a different name for Carnival. Deurne becomes De Peelstrekers (the Peat Stretch, I think), and our neighborhood (St. Joseph Parish) becomes De Heikneuters (the Cozy Heath). Our prince (Henk the Second) lives a few streets away from us, and his house and entire street have been decorated for months.
Carnival itself began in Deurne on Saturday, with a celebration in the central market square. The city hall was decorated with seven banners, representing the city and the six villages or neighborhoods within the city jurisdiction.
First, seven small marching bands (one for each neighborhood) appeared from several of the restaurants in the square. Then the mayor addressed the crowd from the upper window of the city hall, before handing over the keys to the city to the Carnival princes. During Carnival, the normal government is ignored and the city is ruled by foolishness and fun.

At the appointed time, each of the seven princes appeared at the window to receive their neighborhood’s key from the mayor. Each prince was accompanied by his wife (a princess) as well as a couple youth princes or princesses. After the handing over of the key, the corresponding neighborhood’s marching band played music for the royal party to dance to.
I was impressed that one prince played his trumpet to lead his own band. I suppose he likes to multi-task.
After all seven keys had been handed out, the Prince of De Peelstrekers led the entire crowd in a conga-line dance through town to the new cultural center, where the party would continue.
The rest of the weekend was filled with parades, since each of the seven neighborhoods held its own.
My favorite float featured Hulk Hogan on an American pickup truck.
Most floats played extremely loud dance music and carried a group of young adults drinking beer. A lot of these floats were in multiple parades, and several of them seemed to spend the weekend joyriding through town blaring loud music. I lost count of how many floats passed our house while I was home.

Besides floats, there were also dancers dressed in Dutch costumes,
A fire truck with a picture of the prince,
And each neighborhood had a special float to carry the prince and his court.
Carnival continues with parties, activities for children, ridiculous costumes for everyone, and lots of beer-drinking at the local pubs. It will all end Tuesday night when a doll (representing I’m not sure what) will be burned on the market square at midnight, and then everyone will eat salted herring to welcome in Lent.

On Wednesday, supposedly our quiet little town goes back to normal!