Carnival started yesterday. In some strange way, everyone seems to hate Carnival; all anyone has to say about it is how noisy, drunken, raucous, and otherwise irritating it is. But everyone goes anyway. Oh, yes, and then they often suggest that however noisy & etc it really is, it is nevertheless really fun with and for children.
Right.
Okay, to be fair, there are sort of two Carnivals here, a children's Carnival and an adult one. There is even a young Prince Carnival to match the grown-up one.
Yesterday we all went to the magnificent ceremony at which the keys to the city were given by the Mayor to Prince Carnival (the elder) -- who made his entrance in a cage suspended from a very large crane. Young Prince Carnival entered in a sort of a salon chair borne by several strapping fellows.
I have some difficulty with the children's Carnival in theory -- if the idea is, after all, to sort of shuck off the usual limitations on one's behavior and really cut loose in preparation for the long fast of Lent, what on earth have children got to shuck off? Mine, anyway, do not seem to be opressed by any external codes of behavior with which I am familiar. Maybe that's just the Wild Boys, though.
In practice, though, my children seem to like being Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket every day and seeing everybody else dressed up in costumes and so on.
The Carnival Parade went by the house today (literally, it goes past the house and turns left) so of course we went. I got to dance with everybody who was dancing (and with my kids who are both lovely dancers by the way) and was hauled inot the parade at least twice. Some of us don't even have to be drunk to sing and dance in public and skip rope with the marchers.
So far, it's actually pretty fun.
5 comments:
Just how drunk would I have to be to sing and dance in public? Glad you all had such a nice time,
Catherine
Hi Catherine,
Probably about half as drunk as the Dutch guys who Carnival (it's a verb here), who have by now been drinking since Saturday and have devolved to throwing up on each other I think.
I think it's easier for me to act like an idiot in public, as me and mine haven't, you know, been here for generations. And you really can get away with anything if you are, you know, foreign. Who knows what they get up to in Foreign Climes. Could be anything.
Hi Dad,
Here I is. I cannot imagine what inadvertent oversight led to the login window looking like you have to join up in order to comment, lol back at you. I am sure it was unintentional on the part of our delightful host site.
But it looks like you worked it out, as ever.
Jeannine:
Did you know that your email account is so full that all incoming emails are rejected? Thsi blog site is neat, but kind of completely public. Any non-public conversation is sort of clumsy(?)
Since Easter is fast approaching, can you check back on a 2/2/05 email I sent and respond to the questions?
Thanks,
Dad
Jeannine
I just sent another email responding to yours. Maybe it will get there. Somehow I signed in before as Jmarlar, but I don't remember what password I used. LOL. Oh well.......
Dad
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