Janine Weber

Carnival in Cologne

Carnival begins on 11th day of the 11th month at exactly 11 minutes past 11o’clock. Then the people can go to carnivel clubs. When it’s the 7th day of the second month the carnival parades go around in the town. The biggest and tallest parade is the Rose Monday parade. The Rose Monday parade is, as its name says, at Rose Monday. Lots of people go to the parade. Some people just want zo have candies, but in this year I saw little kids. They pointed at the prince, or the princess, or the farmer. The prince had in this year a costume with red, white and gold colours. All people in Cologne know this person from the last year. But in every year athe prince has got an other costume.

The princess had In this year a dress with red and white stripes. She, or better to say he, had in this year a hat with two long plaits. The best of the princess is that every year a man plays the role of the princess.

The farmer had a tall and big open jacket. His costume was red. But his hat was bigger was bigger than the princes’ hat. The farmer’s hat was white with black points and he had a lot of long feathers at his hat.

But at the Rose Monday parade weren’t just the prince, the princess and the farmer, there were a lot of other groups, too. There were kids, Marry of the Sparks and a lot of other groups.

All the groupsthrew candies and flowers and the people at the street couget these things. The people stood in eleven rows. But the Rose Monday parade, in this year, wasn’t safe. A girl-She ran next to a tractor-was felling and came under the tractor. She is dead.

But it didn’t have to be so dangerous. But if so, there are every year the police, the ambulance and police officer on horseback.

But on carnval you needn’t go to parades. You can go to carnival clubs, too. My cousin was at carnival at a carnival club. There she didn’t catch candies but she listened to barrelspeakers, musik, jokes and so an.

But this time isn’t every time. On Ash Wednesday all the foolishness goes. Then the time of Lent starts.

Marina Michels

I’m Marina and I tell you what I do on Carnival. Carnival is a wonderful time, it is the 5th season in the year. We a group of 60 persons, went with a little float to the Rose Monday parade. We stood behind Altermarkt. Because ,on Altermarkt, the Carnival groups caught a lot of candies, because on Altermarkt was the TV, but on Altermarkt were a lot of persons in costumes. The persons shouted :“ candy, candy !” with a cologne dialect it is : “Kammelle, Kammelle!”. So we stood behind Altermarkt and shouted: “Kammelle, Kammelle!”, too. In the parade was a funny float, in the picture you see there float. The float was about the Olympic Game, in the year 2006 in Cologne, Ruhrgebiet and Düsseldorf (Cologne doesn’t like this town and Düsseldorf doesn’t like Cologne).It was funny, but the parade was stopped. There was an accident a woman was on the pavement. The woman fell over a stone and came under a float. The driver of the float didn’t stop. After 5 meters he stopped. The woman under the float was bleeding. The ambulance came and helped the woman. The ambulance brought the woman into a hospital. The parade went on 3 hours later the parade finished. We went back home on the street ( but only on Rose Monday, by us it is a little tradition!). At home my parents and my sister pulled the costumes off.( my mother told my), a police officer told my mother, the woman with the accident died in the hospital. At this moment the day was not so happy. After the talk I went in my room and slept.

Lorenz Wähler

Carnival in Cologne starts every year on Thursday and finishes on Tuesday.

Districts in Cologne have their own parade. On Saturday was the ghost parade in Longerich and Chorweiler. The ghost parade is a special train because it is dark. On the train was a samba group, they made samba music and danced.

On Sunday were the "Schull- und Veedelszöch". Six pupils from my class went with the "Schull- und Veedelszöch" from the Severinstreet until the Dome Cathedral. All the pupils of the "Hansa-Gymnasium" from the 5-7 made a session on Thursday. Debora,Nico,Fabian,Jan G,Elena,Lica,Alina and I made a "Sketch" from " Herbert Knebel" on the playground. It was a long session,30 groups made sketches,dances,a show or a barrel speach.

On Rose Monday there was a Rose Monday parade. The Rose Monday parade was a big parade with ca.240 floats. The parade was very, very long.For half and an hour the parade stood still. The reason was an accident. A float ran over a "wagon angel". The young girl died in the hospital. This accident is not very often. I was on Saturday on a parade in Cologne Niehl. The train was very boring. And on Thursday. I was in the Harveys Bar and stopped cars. The next season begins in the next year.

Janek Fugger

Rose Monday parade and Schull- und Veedelszöch

The Rose Monday Parade was the greatest parade in Cologne. The costumes on the Rose Monday Parade were very,very beautifull. The floats were big and nice. On the floats stood brass bands, samba groups ( see picture), dancers and the nice guard. They threw candies. Near to the floats the „Funken Mariechen“ marched up. They threw candies, too. The people caught them and ate them or put them into a bag. They put the bad candies in the bin.

The Schull- und Veedelszöch

The Hansa Gymnasium went every year with the Scholl- und Veedelszöch. Last year we were devils and witches with red and black costumes. When you went with the Schull- und Veedelszöch you had to pay 25 Euro for the costumes and the candies. Last year the Schull- und Veeselszöch were very good. This year the Hansa Gymnasium was „Goldtaler“.

In our class six pupils went with the Schull- und Veedelszöch. We had gold costumes with a lot of juwels. At 10 o`clock we met in the Hansa Gymnasium and went by bus to the Schull- und Veedelszöch. We threw candies and danced to the music by the brass bands. After the Schull- und Veedelszöch we ate bread and drank Fanta in the school. This day was very, very super.

Jan Goerge

Two days ago was Ash-Wednesday, the end of carnival in Cologne or the 5th season. In the 5th season I had a lot of fun. In this time the people wear funny or crazy costumes every year. My costume was a Punk and in the ‘’Schull un Veedelszöch’’ - parade the school motto was ‘’Gold un Juwele’’, that means “gold and jewel”. It was funny to create and decorate the costumes by my mother and me. We had to pay for the costumes and for the candies. On 11th February we met in front of the school and we had to be prepared. In the school we got our first bag of candies and a card with a red, a blue, a yellow and a green paper because every 30 minutes the teachers called one of these colours and the pupil who had one of these colours got a new bag of candies.It was funny to throw candies to the visitors.Some of them shouted ‘’Kölle Alaaf’’ or ‘’Kamelle’’ or ‘’Strüssje’’. ’’Strüssje’’ is the Cologne dialect for flowers. Some visitors said that our gold costumes were beautiful. We had got a tractor, too. On the tractor was our school-ship. After the parade we went to the school, drank Fanta (the adults drank the Cologne beer ‘’Kölsch’’) and ate bread. After that everyone went home. The next day I watched the video with the ‘’Schull un Veedelszöch’’-parade and I found the other schools had got beautiful costumes, too (look at the photo in my test-book). Unfortunately I didn’t go with the ‘’Schull un Veedelszöch’’ - parade last year, because I had got an operation on my Stomach.

Alina Chandra

How are you? I´m fine! Was your carnival funny? My Carnival was funny! Here in Cologne is Carnival every year very funny because here all kids and adults are frohs “karnivals Jeke”. The best was the “Schull- and veedelszöch”, my school went with the Parade. I show you a Picture: it is my favoritepicture. On this picture I can see: it was two clowens,they caught candies and flowers but first she had to wait for the “Schull- and Veedelszöch”! The Clowen left had a red nose, mouth and cheeks, and she had to red stripes on her eyes. She had a red pullover and a green costume on the costume were two red points and two colorfula spots and a yellow pin with a piercing. She had brown long hairs and a colorful bag with red,pink,green and blue stripes with white letters “Gonski”.The Clown on the right had a yellow wig she had a red nose, mouth and cheeks,and she hads two red stripes on her eyes her face was white. Her costume was yellow,red,pink and green she caught with his had the had was pink and yellow. Right of the right clowen there was a Ladybird with a red hat and black points, the Ladybird had a silver jacket. Behind the three girls there was a men with a green and silver custum.

Christoph Peters

Carnival in Cologne

The big Parades

In Cologne you can see the best Carnival with the biggest floats, the biggest Parades and the most fools. Today I want to tell you about the big Parades. Carnival is between the 11th day of the 11th month at 11 past 11 and 11 seconds and the “Ascher Mittwoch” (Ash Wednesday) in February or in March. But the big Parades are all in the last week of Carnival.

The biggest Parade is the Rose Monday Parade on the Rose Monday. Every year there was a lot of people with funny costumes and horses and music and floats. And if the people around the floats shouted “Kamelle” the people on the floats throw a lot of candies and the people picked up the candies and took them at home. And I’m sure: In the future it will be so, too.

The Rose Monday parade

But there is a second important parade: The “Schull un Vedelszöch”(School and Quarters parade). There are floats, fools and candy, too. But around the floats are pupils and teachers. In the year 2002 my school joined, too. We said: What does the Euro bring? We have got gold and jewels. Our costumes were golden with some wrong jewels.

The other days of Carnival are funny, too. There are parties and other parades. But I tell today only about the big Parades.

Many thanks to the excellent students of Hansa Gymnasium for taking the time to create and send these texts. Please contact their teacher, Mr. Dopstadt, for further questions and comments

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