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Season of Good Humor
"Germans go into the cellar to laugh," runs one malicious prejudice. But it's not true. Take the annual Rosenmontag - or Rose Monday - carnival celebrations in Cologne. Perfect strangers - dressed as the Pope, a penguin, or an airline pilot - embrace and kiss one another. In bars, partygoers sing along to songs with such deeply meaningful texts as: "The caravan is moving on, the sultan is thirsty." The city's bars make 40 percent of their annual turnover and their guests are grateful for each little rise in their blood-alcohol level. This time of year is generally known as the fifth season. More specifically, western Germans call it "Karneval", and southern Germans "Fastnacht" or "Fasching." It begins on the 11th of November - which is, of course, the eleventh month - at 11:11 am. Critics call it "organized fun" and flee the carnival zones for more sober - in every sense of the word - northern Germany. Berlin, for example.
The capital has its own organized mega-party - the Love Parade. Every summer (until it ends in 2004) hundreds of thousands of young ravers take to the streets to celebrate the sounds of techno and the joys of love.
A celebration all Germans try to avoid is the family reunion, where a meeting with uncle Manfred or auntie Heidi is unavoidable. The "Partykeller," or basement party, which was a big hit in the '60s and '70s, is definitely no longer in - this is hardly a surprise as it involves being in a damp subterranean room with no natural light. These days, cellars are for storing your old record collection, the one you used to subject your friends to at basement parties. The modern version of the basement party is the balcony barbeque (the smaller the balcony, the better), or even the stairwell party.
Of course, Germans are particular about celebrating the victory of their favourite soccer team. Unfortunately, it's been some time since the national team gave them any reason to do this.
As far as birthdays are concerned, Germans like to "celebrate in" i.e. get the festivities underway on the night before the occasion so everyone is feeling good when midnight strikes. In German universities there is an infamous tradition of freshmen or "first semester" parties. And overall there is a general philosophy of crossing each party bridge when you come to it.
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