Akwakwadabra

Yesterday was a very busy, yet fun, day. School until 12, music class from 1 till 2 pm, carnival at gymnastics club Voorwaarts from 2.30 until 4.30 pm and swim class from 5.30 until 6.10 pm ... All I did all afternoon was drive Emma and Janne from one place and activity to the next.

Carnival is a big thing in the south of our little country! It is traditionally celebrated in the southern provinces (Noord Brabant and Limburg) of the Netherlands, on the evening before the forty day fast before Easter. During the fast, Roman Catholics were not allowed to eat meat, candy and treats. Children had a fast box, in which they kept all their candy. Only on Sunday they could eat a little candy from the box. The remainder of the candy was kept until Easter. Because of the restricting nature of the fast period, on the evening before the forty day fast, people went all out in a big eating and drinking feast.

Nowadays, carnival lasts from Friday until Tuesday 12 midnight. In certain towns, there are already carnival celebrations on the weekends leading up to the 'real' carnival. Many companies in the southern regions take into account that most of their employees wont be at work on carnival Monday and Tuesday (and will call in sick on Wednesday ... ).

There are many carnival celebrations around the world and they're all different. Carnival celebration in the Netherlands is not the same as for example in Venice, Rio de Janeiro or New Orleans (Mardi Grass). Typically, in Holland, carnival is less glamorous and it's just as big for kids as it is for adults. Although in Maastricht (the southernmost city of the Netherlands) more and more people dress up during carnival in the famous, grand, Venetian style costumes.

During carnival, everybody dresses up and dances across the street. Special carnival music and songs are played, usually in the local dialect. A Prince Carnival is elected and he and his Council of Eleven (11 being the number of fools) act as temporary carnival council. Cities and towns are temporarily renamed and they all have carnival parades, with big floats and many groups. Carnival also has a mocking character. Local politicians and other well known people are favorite targets for the mockery, which is often played out in carnival parades.

This being said, the girls really had a lot of fun at Voorwaarts, where all members of 9 and under where invited for a carnival celebration. The place was literally packed with kids; there must have been at least a hundred kids crammed in the rather small canteen of the gymnastics hall. I'm not sure if they were able to dance around on carnival music (which is the typical way to celebrate carnival), but they enjoyed themselves anyway.

The most fun part of the afternoon was the performance Akwakwadabra by the children's theater group Drommels. It was a great play, with wonderful costumes and very enthusiastic performers! Emma was even more excited when she recognized one of her teachers in the theater group. For the remainder of the day, Emma and Janne couldn't stop talking about the performance, even though Janne admitted that 'it was a bit scary'. With all her bravado, I sometimes forget that she's only a five year old little girl ...

As it was a 'kids only' party, I have no pictures of the carnival celebration at Voorwaarts.