What are carnivals like in your respective countries?
March 22, 2025
I’m curious as to what carnivals are like in the various countries in Europe
10 comments
Italy has a lot of the traditional pre-Lent carnivals, quite recently in fact…a couple of weeks ago.
The most famous is the one in Venice, but they are all over the place.
Here in Sicily we have two quite famous ones and lots of smaller events.They basically focus on big floats with different figures on them,which make a kind of procession through the streets.
They are famous figures, allegorical figures, politicians etc.Made from various materials.
Then there are other parts to the carnival.Some people dress up in costume.There’s always food of course.
In Sicily every celebration is accompanied by special food! We have a lot of types of ‘carnival biscuits ‘ for example…
Accompanied with food (fricassee de limoux) and sparkling wine (blanquette de limoux)
Where I live its non existent. But in the southern part of the country its partying for days and an important for the local culture. Especially in Noord-Brabant and Limburg, onder de rivieren/below the rivers.
We have a lot of carnivals in the winter and spring from my knowledge. In Nice, which is the largest and most important carnival in France I think, but also in Menton (for the fête du citron), in Mandelieu (fête du mimosa). It’s usually a festive time for all social groups (families, students, tourists etc.) There are chars, costumes, lots of food and ofc music
Since you are American, when you say “carnivals” do you mean our version of mardi gras in Louisianna or a fair with amusement rides, food stalls, games?
If you’re referring to what Americans call “carnivals” with small rides and games, we have those too, in the summer.
I live in Cologne Germany which has the biggest Karneval culture in Germany, its pretty crazy. It starts up on November 11 with a gigantic city wide party involving insane amounts of beer and funny costumes.
Then, there’s parties and concerts and events for a few weeks until Advent starts in December, where Karneval goes on pause.
In mid January, the Karneval stuff slowly starts ratcheting up again. There’s concerts with special Karneval music, plays, comedy, and stuff like that all the way up to Lent.
Starting about a week before Lent, then we start having some special city wide events and parades throughout each subsection of the city, involving costumes, candy, and booze. Also lots of concerts. It all builds up to Rosenmontag where there’s the biggest parade, and some very crazy parties.
Then on the Tuesday, every pub throughout the city will have a stawman made, in the evening after everyone is drunk, they parade around the stawman, and then have a big ceremony where we accuse the strawman (called De Nubbel) of all of our crimes and sins throughout Karneval, and then light him on fire while singing songs.
Carnival traditions are various in Italy. The biggest carnivals are Venice, Ivrea and Viareggio and they are so different from each other.
Venice is a recent thing, it’s all about costly masks and tbh it’s a tourist trap set in a dead moment for tourism.
Ivrea it’s in part a medieval revocation, but the main focus is the orange battle, where teams on carts go around the city to meet other teams, that are stationary and not on the cart, to throw each other…oranges! It’s both amazing and fucking painful (trust me!).
Viareggio is more what the “classic carnival” looks like in Italy: cart made of papier-maché and people dressed. The main characteristic is that these Carts are huge and complicate. traditionally the workers of shipyards during winter were without too much to do so they started to compete for the best cart and the thing evolved.
Then there are dozens of smaller but well known carnivals such as Santhià (the oldest in Italy), Cento, Fano, Putignano, Acireale ecc. another one, once more famous, is the Sanremo One, where carts are made with flowers.
Carnival traditions are very strong in some parts of italy, such as Canavese and Vercellese in Piedmont of Versilia in Tuscany. In Piedmont you will eat beans and drink a lot, in Tuscany well, you still drink but the main focus is to be funny.
I live in southern Germany (Oberschwaben and the Lake of Constance region plus the more rural towns around Stuttgart) and we have a more traditional approach to carnival. It’s completely different than the one in Cologne or Mainz. There are many rules to the traditional costumes to wear. I know some families from Rottweil who spend all of their vacation time on Carnival related activities from November to March.
While the costumes vary from village to village and town to town, most of Alemannic carnival have similar events, especially on Thursday before Lent (Women’s or Dirty carnival) and on Monday and Tuesday before Lent.
I have lived in two towns where every single shop closes on Monday for the celebrations. The whole normal life comes to a standstill and centers on Carnival.
Mostly sad, unimpressive and cold, although it somewhat depends on when exactly pentecost falls. So some years it is only sad and unimpressive.
10 comments
Italy has a lot of the traditional pre-Lent carnivals, quite recently in fact…a couple of weeks ago.
The most famous is the one in Venice, but they are all over the place.
Here in Sicily we have two quite famous ones and lots of smaller events.They basically focus on big floats with different figures on them,which make a kind of procession through the streets.
They are famous figures, allegorical figures, politicians etc.Made from various materials.
Then there are other parts to the carnival.Some people dress up in costume.There’s always food of course.
In Sicily every celebration is accompanied by special food! We have a lot of types of ‘carnival biscuits ‘ for example…
https://www.audetourisme.com/fr/experiences/carnaval-limoux/
https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnaval_de_Limoux
The longest and one of the oldest … 14th century
Accompanied with food (fricassee de limoux) and sparkling wine (blanquette de limoux)
Where I live its non existent. But in the southern part of the country its partying for days and an important for the local culture. Especially in Noord-Brabant and Limburg, onder de rivieren/below the rivers.
We have a lot of carnivals in the winter and spring from my knowledge. In Nice, which is the largest and most important carnival in France I think, but also in Menton (for the fête du citron), in Mandelieu (fête du mimosa). It’s usually a festive time for all social groups (families, students, tourists etc.) There are chars, costumes, lots of food and ofc music
Since you are American, when you say “carnivals” do you mean our version of mardi gras in Louisianna or a fair with amusement rides, food stalls, games?
In Europe, “Carnival” refers to pre-Lent Carnival (what you call Mardi Gras in the US). In Greece, it’s the same as the answers from other countries. It varies by city, but there’s [costumes](https://www.acropolistay.gr/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/apokr.jpg), [parades with costumes](https://pelop.gr/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/karnabali-mikron-2025-23-jpg.webp), [parades with floats](https://www.tanea.gr/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/patra_shutterstock.jpg), [food fights](https://www.reuters.com/pictures/flour-war-revelers-greece-celebrate-ash-monday-with-food-fight-2024-03-19/), [street performers](https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kvBObKn-OfA), music, all sorts of activities.
If you’re referring to what Americans call “carnivals” with small rides and games, we have those too, in the summer.
I live in Cologne Germany which has the biggest Karneval culture in Germany, its pretty crazy. It starts up on November 11 with a gigantic city wide party involving insane amounts of beer and funny costumes.
Then, there’s parties and concerts and events for a few weeks until Advent starts in December, where Karneval goes on pause.
In mid January, the Karneval stuff slowly starts ratcheting up again. There’s concerts with special Karneval music, plays, comedy, and stuff like that all the way up to Lent.
Starting about a week before Lent, then we start having some special city wide events and parades throughout each subsection of the city, involving costumes, candy, and booze. Also lots of concerts. It all builds up to Rosenmontag where there’s the biggest parade, and some very crazy parties.
Then on the Tuesday, every pub throughout the city will have a stawman made, in the evening after everyone is drunk, they parade around the stawman, and then have a big ceremony where we accuse the strawman (called De Nubbel) of all of our crimes and sins throughout Karneval, and then light him on fire while singing songs.
Carnival traditions are various in Italy. The biggest carnivals are Venice, Ivrea and Viareggio and they are so different from each other.
Venice is a recent thing, it’s all about costly masks and tbh it’s a tourist trap set in a dead moment for tourism.
Ivrea it’s in part a medieval revocation, but the main focus is the orange battle, where teams on carts go around the city to meet other teams, that are stationary and not on the cart, to throw each other…oranges! It’s both amazing and fucking painful (trust me!).
Viareggio is more what the “classic carnival” looks like in Italy: cart made of papier-maché and people dressed. The main characteristic is that these Carts are huge and complicate. traditionally the workers of shipyards during winter were without too much to do so they started to compete for the best cart and the thing evolved.
Then there are dozens of smaller but well known carnivals such as Santhià (the oldest in Italy), Cento, Fano, Putignano, Acireale ecc. another one, once more famous, is the Sanremo One, where carts are made with flowers.
Carnival traditions are very strong in some parts of italy, such as Canavese and Vercellese in Piedmont of Versilia in Tuscany. In Piedmont you will eat beans and drink a lot, in Tuscany well, you still drink but the main focus is to be funny.
I live in southern Germany (Oberschwaben and the Lake of Constance region plus the more rural towns around Stuttgart) and we have a more traditional approach to carnival. It’s completely different than the one in Cologne or Mainz. There are many rules to the traditional costumes to wear. I know some families from Rottweil who spend all of their vacation time on Carnival related activities from November to March.
While the costumes vary from village to village and town to town, most of Alemannic carnival have similar events, especially on Thursday before Lent (Women’s or Dirty carnival) and on Monday and Tuesday before Lent.
I have lived in two towns where every single shop closes on Monday for the celebrations. The whole normal life comes to a standstill and centers on Carnival.
Mostly sad, unimpressive and cold, although it somewhat depends on when exactly pentecost falls. So some years it is only sad and unimpressive.