On Monday, March 7, I made a day trip by train to Koln, Germany (or better known to English speakers as Cologne, Germany). The Monday of Karneval in Koln is known as “Rose Monday” and on this day there is a grand parade that rolls through town all day (and I do mean all day, this year it lasted about six hours).

This parade is much more like a traditional New Orleans Mardi Gras parade with its two-story floats (however riders are only on the top level), most of the floats have a satirical political theme (think Krewe d’Etat), there are cheerleaders and bands, and best of all – they throw chocolate, Haribo gummy bears, and real roses rather than beads. And I’m not talking the cheap discounted chocolate either, they throw well-known brands of delicious chocolate, my favorite being the Toffifee. As awesome as it sounds, throwing candy does make it much more difficult to actually catch something without harming yourself or others in the process as it requires both hands and a brave person to actually dive for a large box of heavy chocolates. I was clobbered by more boxes of chocolates in Koln than I’ve ever been hit in the face by beads in NOLA.

I don't know if you can see, but all the chocolate bars are wrapped with labels for each section of the parade and normally have the picture of the parade president or band on them, almost like the medallion beads in NOLA.

The one thing I noticed the Germans haven’t seemed to quite figure out is how to view the parade as effectively as NOLians – there were no toddlers atop homemade ladder and toolbox highchairs,  no wooden boards being supported by two ladders, and very few people were watching the parade from someone else’s shoulders. The downside to this was that it was very hard to actually see what was happening, even harder to take pictures, and nearly impossible to get roses from anyone in the parade (especially when the rather large family in front of you seems to know everyone marching and therefore collects about 5 full bouquets of flowers before you get a single rose).

I finally caught a flower – even though it was a tulip – from Holland.

The Floats:

The Marchers:

Exchange students at the parade:

And the mad rush to the train station at the end of the parade:

It was fascinating to see all of the differences between what I’ve always known Mardi Gras (in New Orleans) and another celebration halfway around the world. The opportunity to experience a celebration that is so close to home for me has been one of the best moments of my study abroad experience.