Cologne carnival - the start

In Cologne and other German cities in the last 11 hours and 11 minutes was the start of "the Rhine carnival." Streets Rhine cities where today declared a holiday, filled with entertainers. Parade clowns, concerts, the loud sound of music clowns entertained the crowds, scattering in all directions with conversion into a colorful platform trucks candy and flowers. To create a truly festive mood of celebrations maintain their fervor wine and beer.
4 Photo © REUTERS / Ina Fassbender via plasmastik

Night "babsky Thursday" in this predominantly Catholic part of Germany symbolized the power into the hands of representatives of the "weaker sex." Lord Mayor of Düsseldorf Dirk Elbers "surrendered" before a crowd of women and entertainers, handing them the keys to the town hall and the power in the city. Similar scenes played out in Cologne, Bonn, Aachen, in many cities of Baden-Wuerttemberg and Rhineland-Palatinate. In the coming weeks the carnival will grow and spread to other parts of the country. It will last until the beginning of Lent.

Due to the economic crisis, the scope of this year's carnival is inferior. For example, in Frankfurt, where the carnival will be held on Sunday, the participants of the celebrations, according to media reports, will be handed out only about a ton of candy, while last year there were twelve tons.