Carnival? - I'm outta here

It's that time of the year again: the main celebraitons of the Carnival season are getting ever closer.

Now, not all parts of Germany celebrate Carnival, which officially starts on the 11th day of the 11th month of the year. (Unfortunately, this is Remembrance Day in the UK, when everyone commemorates the soldiers fallen in past wars.) Carnival is a big thing in Catholic areas of Germany: Cologne (in particular), Düsseldorf, and Mainz are the largest towns that celebrate the season.

Festivities come to a climax with the parades on Rosenmontag (crazy Monday), which is the day before Shrove Tuesday (also known as Pancake Day in the UK - yum!). People dress up in costumes ranging from cowboys to princesses, astronauts to clowns, pirates to superheroes. On Rosenmontag, long parades consisting of floats with papier-mâché figures, often of a political nature, most famously made by Jacques Tilly. 

Here is one by Jacques Tilly - no words required

The clowns

And the marching bands - Germans do seem to like a uniform

And the people on most of the floats throw sweets (and sometimes other things, like packets of seeds)

Which are eagerly caught by all the people lining the streets

Who are in their colourful costumes

Now, the although Rosenmontag is the main day, there is also Altweiberfastnacht (literally: "old women's fasting night") on the Thursday before that Monday, that is to say on Fat Thursday (yes, really). On this day, women storm the Town Hall and snip off the ends of any man's tie that they can find, a symbolic emasculting gesture. For once, the women are supposed to be in power. 

And, of course, there is no reason not to wear a costume at the weekend and go out drinking and celebrating - until Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, when things get serious again. 

However, what I cannot understand is why so many people announce to me that they are leaving town for a week in order to avoid the Carnival festivities. All these festivities generally take place in the centre of town. 

My solution? Just stay at home. Why go to all the fuss and extra expense to "escape" the noisy people in town? Buy enough food, put your feet up, watch TV, read, play music, go for a walk in a park (no revellers there), phone friends, invite friends around, cook (for yourself or guests), do some DIY, clear out some cupboards, etc.

I can honestly say that in all my life, when I've stayed at home, I've barely noticed Carnival. Just don't go into town.

Punctuation - because it looks pretty

I'm still reeling [taumeln, schwanken] from the message that was passed on to me from a translation client via the agency.

The client said that when they used a colon [:] in the German text, they wanted to see a colon in the English text and not a full stop or a semicolon [;]. 

I replied - via the agency - saying that the way the German use colons and the way the English language uses colons are often two different things.

For one thing, the main rule in English when it comes to colons is that whatever stands in front of the colon MUST be a complete sentence.

For example, it is wrong to write this: "The five continents are: Africa, Asia, Australasia, America and Europe."

This is becuase "The five continents are" does not constitute a complete sentence.

On the other hand, "There are five continents" does. Hence you can write, "There are five continents: Africa, Asia, Australasia, America and Europe."

The woman in the agency sent that explanation on to the client, but, much to her dismay [Bestürzung], and mine, the client wrote back saying that they liked the look of the colon and didn't care about the rules of English.

Fortunately, the woman in the agency said that I should try to keep the colon in wherever possible, but to write correct English. The thing is that the client is a magazine that credits the agency with translating the articles. Who wants to get a reputation for bad translations? Not the agency, and definitely not me either.

Imagine insisting on incorrect punctuation, just because it looks pretty.

We shall see how this goes.