The tone is set on the Thursday with Weiberfastnacht (the Women's Carnival) when wives lord it over their husband and their friends' husbands, dancing and playing with whom they choose, and nobody knows or worries who beneath the masks and costumes is married to whom... Even if someone felt like blushing, you wouldn't be able to tell under all the clown make-up... Sunday it's the kids' turn to parade through the streets. Rosenmontag (Rose Monday) brings the biggest procession of all, with hundreds of elaborate floats displaying papiermâché masks of popular and unpopular political figures in invariably undignified postures.
Cities of Europe, Berlitz Guides
