A completely, utterly senseless post

[whiteling]

Today is Fat Thursday, one of the highpoints of German carnival. In honour of this occasion I give you proof of the GREAT sense of humour we Germans do have indeed. *nods meaningful*

In German speaking regions, an annoying person is rudely called "A*sch mit Ohren" (literally "a*se with ears"; you would call him a pain in the a*se). This charming

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[lame_pegasus]

Waaah!

*dissolves into giggles*

Needless to say that my kids were downright delighted.

[whiteling]

Needless to say that my kids were downright delighted.
Naturally!
I wonder who was the genius brain behind this? Aah, to had been the fly on the wall when he/she first introduced the idea to the team...

[mechtild]

These are hilarious! I'm going to show these to my husband and daughter. (The frontal view marshmallow treats would no doubt be so popular they'd be sold round the world on Ebay

[whiteling]

(The frontal view marshmallow treats would no doubt be so popular they'd be sold round the world on Ebay.)

You bet!!

Way back when I was young and staying in Bonn, my hosts took me with them for the Fasching parade in Cologne.
That must have been on Rosenmontag, Shrove Monday. Well yes, along the Middle and Lower Rhine the Carnival fun is indeed a *serious* matter; people spend about the half of the year to prepare for the Karneval season - dance training, parade dispositions etc. etc. I think all this work shows in those parades. Coming from Bavaria, I was not used to this kind of 'fifth season' frenzy at all and I still find it slightly strange.

[mechtild]

Oooh! "Rosenmontag". That's pretty, "Roses Monday". What does it have to do with roses, though? Let me look that up.....

Ah ha! No reference to roses, and you are absolutely right about Cologne:

Rose Monday: der Rosenmontag
Rose Monday parade: der Rosenmontagumzug

This is the big parade day for Karneval in Cologne, while Fasching in the south reaches its climax on Shrove Tuesday. Rosenmontag actually has nothing to do with roses, but is derived from rasen, to rave or rage!

That was from this site:

http://german.about.com/library/blfastnvoc.htm

[whiteling]

Ah, that's very interesting! Thanks for your research, Mechtild. The explanation you found refers to the Brothers Grimm, two linguists (the same who collected the classic fairy-tales) who started working on a German dictionary (in 1838; it was such a huge enterprise that the brothers couldn't finish it during their lifetimes - the dictionary was finally accomplished only in 1960!). I like their explanation of the possible origin of "Rosenmontag". There's another one though which has to do with roses:

During Napoleon's occupation of the Rhineland the Carnival festivities had been banned, and after the Congress of Vienna the Rhinelanders wanted to reform the feast. In 1822 a Carnival Commitee was founded in Cologne, which annual general meeting took place on Monday after the fourth Lent Sunday, called "Laetare". This Laetare Sunday was called "Rose Sunday" since the 11th century, since on this day, the Pope used to sanctify a golden rose and gave it to an honourable person. (translated from the German Wikipedia entry)

[mariole]

These are adorable. Okay, Germans win. :D

[whiteling]

*accepts the 'Golden A*se-with-Ears Cup' and puts it proudly on her mantlepiece*

:-D

[ms_banazira]

Those are hysterical, but I'm not sure I could bring myself to eat one!

Here we have some kind of tree, (a plane tree or maple maybe?) that gets little, fuzzy, green, winged fairy butts on it in the spring. That's exactly what they look like, except that the "wings" are longer than the ears! They give me giggle fits just looking at them!

[whiteling]

Winged fairy butts - LOL! They would make for neat candy too.
Nature creates the most suggestive shapes sometimes!

[whiteling]

Help yourself, Pearl.

"Please have another a*rse with ears." I just can imagine this sentence sounding off across a cultivated tea room. :-D