>If there’s one thing they take seriously in Mainz, it’s Fassenacht – the run-up to Lent.

They take it so seriously that it starts in November (11:11 am on 11/11……) and continues with the gathering momentum of a runaway freight train until Ash Wednesday.

The big shebang’s on Rose Monday – procession through the city, festive costumes, live national TV coverage, mass hysteria, bitingly satirical political floats, scenes of depravity and excess…..

Just my sort of thing.

There’s a more family-friendly event, though – the Kiddies’ Carnival Procession at 14:11 today.

Pretty much the same as Monday’s do without the live national TV coverage, mass hysteria, bitingly satirical political floats, scenes of depravity and excess…..

And Mainz 05 – the local First Division soccer team – won away from home today. Again. (Doesn’t happen often)

They’re now 11th in the table.

How appropriate.

17 Feb This entry was published on 17 February, 2007 at 16:11. It’s filed under Uncategorized and tagged Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.