Happy Carnaval!

Stefan is thoroughly pleased with his... ahem... "resplendent glory."  His words, not mine.

I wrote a lengthy explanation in last year's Carnaval post, but I'll recap briefly here.  The southern provinces of the Netherlands were historically Catholic, and thus, as in many Catholic countries, they celebrate Carnaval before Lent begins and they're supposed to give up bad food and alcohol and other such things.  Mardi Gras is technically just today, but like in Rio and Venice, the previous weekend got incorporated into Carnaval at some point.  And Lent starts tomorrow, forty days before Easter, so it's Carnaval time here.

My favourite part of Carnaval is that you see so many people dressed up.  I love Hallowe'en, but you don't often see lots of people over about 30 dressed up.  Not Carnaval.  Everyone, from tiny little confused babies to the very elderly, dresses up.  I went shopping this afternoon, and passed a man in his 50s wearing a red-and-white striped suit with an oversized novelty tie that had an arrow pointing to his mouth and the words "Bier hier" (which, if you sound it out, I bet you can understand).  And he wasn't the only one, either: downtown's full of costumed people shopping and hanging out in cafes and bars and such.

Stefan's favourite part (other than his new suit, which may meet a tragic end if he keeps trying to convince me that he should wear it at least once a month) is the music.  I posted about the crazy music last year in the Carnaval post above, and here as well.  But, of course, there's a new selection of songs this year.  Some of the highlights:

Double DJs, Handen hoog (Hands high).  It's basically dancing directions, like the hokey pokey, mostly in Dutch, except for the line, "Shake your ***, baby."  And those are some awfully orange men!

Jettie Pallettie, Koekoek (Cuckoo).  I don't understand either, but her songs are ridiculously catchy.  I had this Sleetje rijden (Riding a sled) one in my head for weeks last year at Carnaval.

PQDQ, Goede wijn is nog geen bier (Good wine still isn't beer).  Stefan is particularly fond of the sentiment.

Swoop feat. de Deurzakkers, Polonaisemedley (Polish medley).  This one has higher production values than some of the others: you can tell because there are more dancing girls, and they don't look like they're just the friends or partners of the guys singing.

Vlemmix & Roos, Een Bussie Vol Met Polen (A bus full of Poles).  I just caught the end of this one on TV, enough to be vaguely horrified and confused by the title.

Rene Schuurmans, Hela ho (um... hela ho?).  I couldn't find the actual video that we saw on TV, but this is a live version.  Rest assured that the video we saw had just as much bouncing up and down... that seems to be how he dances.

Rob Ronalds, Haar rode lampje (Her little red light).  Because who doesn't need a red light district themed video?  Possibly not suitable for work or people who are easily offended, and it's probably best if you don't know what the Dutch means, because some of it's quite crude.  Stefan found the last part hysterical.

I've put the pictures up here, mostly from the parade downtown, like last year.  It's tricky to get a decent picture in such a big crowd, especially when you're considerably shorter than most of said crowd, but I got quite a few this year.