Europe

Carnival time is here

Carnival time in the Western world goes from Jan 1 to April 1, which is Easter. These kinds of masquerades occur in many villages and cities at different dates, but not in Africa or Asia. I don’t know when or where this particular parade happens in Switzerland.

In the United States the principal Carnival celebration is in New Orleans, where the Carnival season opens on Twelfth Night (January 6) and climaxes with the Mardi Gras festivities commencing 10 days before Shrove Tuesday. Other places are different.

Thus, in Munich in Bavaria the Carnival season, there called Fasching, begins on the feast of the Epiphany (January 6), while in Cologne in the Rhineland it begins on November 11 at 11:11 am (11th month, day, hour, and minute). In France the celebration is restricted to Shrove Tuesday (the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday) and to mi-carème (the Thursday of the third week of Lent). More generally, the commencement date is Quinquagesima Sunday (the Sunday before Ash Wednesday), and the termination is Shrove Tuesday. In some parts of Spain, Ash Wednesday also is included in the Carnival celebrations, an observance that stems from a time when Ash Wednesday was not an integral part of Lent.

Some of this is from the Encyclopedia Britannica.

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