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The Dunkirk Carnival is among the greatest and most exuberant carnivals celebrated in Europe. Its traditions date back to the 17th century and are based on the vischerbende as fishermen went from one café to another accompanied by their relatives and friends just before departing to Icelandic fishing grounds. [175]
Not only is it the longest Carnival celebration in Europe, but it is also one of the oldest. Putignano's Carnival dates back to 1394, when St. Stephen's relics were moved inland to Putignano to safeguard them from invasion. Peasants abandoned their vineyards to join the parade, erupting in song, dancing, and improvised rhymes and poetry ...
The Carnival of Venice (Italian: Carnevale di Venezia; Venetian: Carneval de Venèsia) is an annual festival held in Venice, Italy, famous throughout the world for its elaborate costumes and masks. The Carnival ends on Shrove Tuesday ( Martedì Grasso or Mardi Gras ), which is the day before the start of Lent on Ash Wednesday .
As a result of the close proximity of dates, many Christians in western Europe continued to celebrate traditional Saturnalia customs in association with Christmas and the surrounding holidays. [ 105 ] [ 110 ] [ 14 ] Like Saturnalia, Christmas during the Middle Ages was a time of ruckus, drinking, gambling, and overeating. [ 14 ]
Carnival Thursday is called Altweiber (Old women day) in Düsseldorf or Wieverfastelovend (The women's day) in Cologne. This celebrates the beginning of the "female presence in carnival", which began in 1824, when washer-women celebrated a "workless day" on the Thursday before carnival.
The second, one week later at the old time, was known as the Bauernfasnacht (farmers' carnival). Afterwards, only this second carnival was celebrated in Basel. Today, the Carnival of Basel is said to be "the only Protestant carnival in the world". In 2017 the UNESCO added the Carnival of Basel to the list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. [7]
The Groppenfastnacht in Ermatingen, on the Swiss south bank of the Bodensee, which is celebrated three weeks before Easter, is considered "the world's last Fastnacht". In 2015, its 600th anniversary was celebrated, and it is deemed to be the Fastnacht that is most rich in tradition in eastern Switzerland.
Mardi Gras, though celebrated on Fat Tuesday, is a similar event. Rosenmontag is celebrated in German-speaking countries, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Belgium ( Eupen , Kelmis ), but most heavily in the carnival strongholds which include the Rhineland , especially in Cologne , [ 3 ] Bonn , Düsseldorf , [ 4 ] Aachen and Mainz . [ 5 ]