Carnival in Germany...

Monday, March 7, 2011. Currently there is carnival in Germany. It is a time of celebrations before the time of fastening starts which leads to Easter.

A time of celebration …

It is interesting that carnival is to some extent linked to Christian faith - it is celebrated mostly in Roman-Catholic areas. But the celebrations themselves do not have a lot in common with faith. Today you would not find any link with faith if you just attended the parades and celebrations - you would rather think it is purely atheistic. People act in a crazy way. They wear costumes. They paint their faces white or red. They pretend to be clowns or some fantastic figures.

I like carnival, though I have to admit that I usually do not take part in the celebrations. I like it when people can free themselves from the firm roles thy usually obey. I like it when they can be a little crazy in a secure environment. It is just nice to leave the usual for some days. Carnival is nice.

Carnival is also a time of celebration, a time of humor, a time with a lot of speeches. During carnival, we look at our usual business with some distance, and we are allowed to criticize things without taking this too serious, this gives a lot of freedom to the speakers. If we did not have carnival, we should invent it - it would be difficult to do without having hundreds of years tradition in the background.

God and Carnival? …

What does God think about carnival? I think that he likes it as well - at least the freedom which people find in it to step out of their usual paths. When we know that God wants us to find “new life”, which is different form our average existence, then we easily understand that he will like everything which helps us to change. Carnival can be a little component of this process.

However, of course carnival does not really speak about faith - and probably it would be too much to expect that. But we also need to know that we should not stop with carnival. Life is more than some crazy days. Life is the adventure of getting to know the source of life, the adventure of development, of love, of struggle and challenges, of security and intimacy. Life is so much!

Today there are all the parades, in Cologne, in Frankfurt, in Mainz. We will go and visit. We will be happy - the weather also seems to support us this year. Then, through and beyond these days, we will continue do search the Lord and find his presence. We will continue to explore life with the Lord. ... more texts