Welcome back to Everything’s Famtastic! How has your first week of March been? I have to say that here the weather has been disappointingly lousy. Far too much wind and unpredictable rain. Lucky today won’t be like that. Today is all but guaranteed to rain allll day long. See? No uncertainty. Silver lining! LOL.
In my last post I talked about getting ready for the annual Karneval parade. Did you also have the chance to celebrate Karneval? Which city were you in? Was it your first time? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!
This is How We Celebrated Karneval
Our lovely little family of 5 did go to town to see the parade. There had been murmurs of whether the parade would even take place this year as the weather outlook (rain, storm-force winds) was not looking promising. It did, of course, go ahead as planned.
This week hasn’t only been parties and fun. I have had a few frustrating situations bubble up. (For example, bung knee, anyone?) Setbacks, I guess you would call them. I need to figure out how best to deal with these so I can keep moving forward towards those goals I set for myself this year. It’s all in the mindset, right?
Anyway, yes, we went to the Karneval parade and had a great time.
Lucky for us we are in walking distance of the route that the parade travels, so no need to fuss with cars, buses or bikes. The kids were all properly dressed up in costumes: Hermione (homemade), Butterfly and Hulk (also homemade). Hubby and I each slapped cowboy/cowgirl hats on our head. (Not a lot of effort on our part this year, I’m afraid! Sorry.)
We met up with some friends, staked out our place on the kerb armed with bags to collect all those sweets and chatted with many more friends and familiar faces who had all gathered to enjoy the same festival as us. It’s kinda cool when you can stroll into town and continually bump into people who you actually like everywhere you turn. And it’s not like we live in some small town with a population of 500. Maybe we just know so many people by the fact that we have 3 children and have come into contact with a hell of a lot of people through all of their activities over the years.
Miss 7 happily collected ample lollies whilst springing about and waving at some of her friends standing across the road. And being even more excited when people she knew who were marching in the parade dashed over to her and placed a fistful of goodies directly into her bag.
A few marching bands and their booming drums really impressed Master 5. He is currently into drums and hopes that he can have drum lessons when he gets a little older. This excites and terrifies me. Think: Animal from The Muppets and THAT is how he is likely to play. *gasp*
Miss 10 found some of the costumes of the dancers “overdone” (“How can they stand to wear that big headpiece for so long?!?”)- LOL- and spent much of the parade alternately chatting with her friend or bemoaning how heavy her bag with sweets was becoming.
The Take-Home Win
Our children came home with literally kilos of lollies, sherbet, chocolate, stickers, pencils etc etc. Immediately they began to wheel and deal and hustle and swap until they were satisfied that everyone had a pleasingly large and varied collection of goodies to keep them going for what looked like a lifetime.
Of course not all of the sweets they scored were kept. Any that smashed upon hitting the ground at the parade were quickly disposed of. And lucky us, we Mama and Papa were given the unwanted pile of eucalyptus and similar throat lozenges. Oh yay. See, apparently it’s all about sharing and not being too greedy 😉.
And now the Karneval is over… Fastenzeit
So now that Karneval is over and done with for another year, the more controlled time of Lent (in German, Fastenzeit) has begun. Lent is celebrated by Catholics, so for some people that means nothing. Non-Catholics don’t act on Lent and neither do some Catholics. But many people do at least decide to give up something for the Lent period, lasting for nearly 6 weeks.
Our children did try to convince us that they would sacrifice the act of giving up on anything (ie give up nothing). No deal smarty-pants! 😉
I myself am not Catholic, so never grew up in a household that recognised the period of Lent. But Hubby is, and our 3 children have all been baptised Roman Catholic. Which means that all 4 of them choose to give up something until Easter. I always figure, that it can do no harm and I generally follow the majority on this one. Like the saying goes “the family that plays together stays together”.
What blows my mind about Karneval and the time of Lent that follows a short 2 days later, is HOW ON EARTH are people supposed to get through so many lollies?!?
Our children have decided that they won’t eat any sweets or chocolate until Easter. For children, of course, Easter = the next sugar onslaught 😉. So those 3 bags full of lollies have been stashed away out of sight (at their request) until the end of Lent. But when the time comes that they allow themselves to eat chocolate and lollies again, they will have not only the kilos of Karneval sweets to drool over, but also the chocolate eggs that the Easter bunny will presumably deliver. Oh my! I can see another sorting-out-of-sweets-to-keep-or-throw-away session in our future…
As for Hubby and I? What are we doing to recognise Lent? We decided that we would abstain from alcohol. Not that we are boozehounds by any measure. But a few times a week we do enjoy a glass or 2 of beer or wine. So now, no beer or wine until Easter. Abstaining from alcohol doesn’t do the health any harm either, right?!? And getting healthier was one of the goals I set for myself this year anyway. Perfect. It’s a win-win! Although maybe I’m not supposed to look at Lent that way… Oh well.
Do you observe Lent? What have you decided to abstain from for the next weeks? Or not… 😉. Let me know!
P.S. Remember at the start of this post how I said that the weather today would be predictable? Wrong! We also have been getting snow for the past 2 hours!