“Someone who goes in the cellar to laugh.” Someone with no sense of humor.
(YAY mond, dare tsoom LOCHH en in dane KELLER gate.)
“Someone who goes in the cellar to laugh.” Someone with no sense of humor.
(YAY mond, dare tsoom LOCHH en in dane KELLER gate.)
Bucket. Large buckets used to transport harvested grapes in Germany’s wine regions were turned upside-down and used as lecterns for humorous speeches during Karneval celebrations, which is why today’s poets and jesters are called Büttenredner or “bücket orators.”
(Bitt.)
“Mainz remains Mainz, in the manner in which it sings and laughs.” A formal annual municipal mardi gras television show that lasts for hours. News-related poems, jokes, songs and speeches are presented to the good-humored costumed crowd, whose tables are kept cheerful by a steady stream of beer and wine. Eventually, clown nose-wearing viewers fall into a reverie before their tv screens, occasionally remembering to blow “tra la!” on toy horns.
(My nts bl eye bt my nts, vee ess zing t oont lochh t.)
“Beer chain.” A bucket-brigade delivery system to convey refreshing bottles of beer into this crowded apartment room where students performed a delightful Bach party in Leipzig.
(BEER kett eh.)
Cheereth, rejoiceth! Get up, praiseth the days.
(Yow! chh tsett, froh LOCK ett! Ow! f, PRY zett dee TOGG eh.)
“Between the years.” The days between the end of the old year (Dec. 24) and the beginning of the New Year on Jan. 6, according to earlier calendars and older religions.
(TSVISH en dane YARR en.)
Feast days and the everyday (often called “the gray everyday”). Feast days make the everyday possible.
(FEST toggeh oont ALL tog.)
It’s christmassing pretty hard.
(Ess VYE nochhh tett ZERRR.)
“Immense cave, unexplored depths.” Laconic note on a map of Westphalia from 1645 marking the site now known as the Balver Höhle. This karst cave was occupied during the stone age. Now it has been dynamited bigger and is used for multiday concerts and festivals with audiences of thousands of people. Rivers of beer. Schützenfests still take place there every year, and apparently they’ve added a celtic music festival. There used to be a big annual jazz festival there, with Dutchmen wearing lavender and light blue playing great slide guitar and mumbling fake English, interspersed with heartfelt “SHICK AH GO!”s.
You have to celebrate the holidays on the days they occur.
(Mon moose dee FEST eh fire n, vee zee foll en.)
“Preglowing,” “preheating,” “pre-ignition.” Predrinking, pregaming. The party before the party.
(FORE glue en.)
“Mood cannon.” Someone who tends to be the life and soul of the party, reliably so. Often a female pub owner. Ina Müller‘s talk show is based on such a character.
(SHTIM oongs kah KNOWN ah.)
“No celebrations without Meier.” Title of a 1932 movie about a guy who ran a combination marriage bureau and divorce service.
(Kine eh FIRE oh neh MY er.)
“Party evening!” A greeting among factory workers at the end of the shift. Let the celebrations begin.
(FIE er AH bend.)
“Making blue,” i.e. drinking. Also playing hooky. In the Middle Ages, making blue dye required lots of urine, hence the term.
(Bl OW! mack en.)
If you yell this during today’s carnaval parade in Cologne, costumed people will throw gifts at you that include chocolates, long-stemmed roses, shrink-wrapped blood sausage, and soap samples.
(Kamella!)
The Thursday before Ash Wed. when women cut off men’s ties at work and on the street. People start drinking at noon. Normal life will resume in Lent.
(OLT vibe er FOST nockt.)
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