Prinz Paul and Prinzessin Inge-Marie Longbrake - 2004
“Wir laden ein zum Karneval-Fasching Ball und wollen fröhlich sein!”
Dayton Liederkranz-Turner will celebrate Fasching with a Maskenball on Saturday February 21, 2004 at
7:30 p.m. Gebhard Erler will provide our music entertainment for the evening. The majority of those attending come in costumes of all kinds with a parade of costumes and prizes. The evening includes drinks, snacks, prizes and plenty of Gemütlichkeit. The Prinz and Prinzessin (Paul and Inge-Marie
Longbrake) preside over the ceremonies and welcome everyone to fun.
Rosenmontag will be celebrated on Monday February 22, 2004 with a dinner at 6:00 p.m. Beef Gulasch, potatoes, cucumber salad, bread and butter and dessert will be served before the dance at 7:30 p.m.
Entertainment will be provided by Dave Hughes. This is the evening that Fasching is symbolically buried with much moaning and groaning, to be born again next year. On Wednesday February 24, the season of
Lent begins.
HISTORY OF
FASCHING – FASNACHT – KARNEVAL
Fasching, Fasnacht, and Karneval all describe a season of celebration in Germany and in Catholic countries. This pre-Lenten period is celebrated with parades, masks, costumes, food, drink and all kinds of tomfoolery. It is a time of the “fool” who, from behind his/her mask, can say and do outrageous things with impunity.
“The capital if Karneval is Cologne. Officially, the carnival season begins on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at 11 o’clock and 11 minutes with the first meeting of the “Council of Eleven.” Together with other “Fool’s Guilds”, they plan the carnival festivities, which reach their climax in a huge Rose
Monday parade with floats representing satirical, political and traditional topics…. The parade, as well as the entire carnival season, is presided over by the Triumverate, the Dreigestirn. It consists of Prinz
Karneval and the Maiden. All over town, people don costumes and shouts of Koele Alaaf are heard everywhere.” **

“Other large cities, most notably Munich, celebrate Fasching in much the same style, with masked balls, parties and parades. The market women of the Viktualienmarkt (an open-air market) dance in comical costumes, and every seven years the Coopers Guild performs its traditional hoop dance.” **
“In the small villages of southern Germany, people celebrate Fasnacht. Here too, masks are worn and much feasting takes place…. Typical of the southern German Fasnacht is the use of beautifully and elaborately carved wooden masks. Recurring over and over again are figures of “Wise Fools” with smooth, pale faces, scary witches with grotesque feathers and animal masks of all kinds.” **
“German-American organizations celebrate this period of the year on a larger or smaller scale, depending on their size and resources. Almost all clubs organize a Maskenball (masquerade ball). People come in costume and masks to dance incognito until late in the evening, when there is a costume parade, prizes awarded and everyone takes off the mask. This often leads to some surprises; the lovely lady with whom you danced all evening might turn out to be a man.” **
“Whether Fasnacht, Fasching or Karneval, German-American groups celebrate the pre-Lenten season with the same joy and abandon as their European relatives.” ** ** from German-American Life. Penfield Press.