Cologne's Rose Monday COVID-19 parade
Lovingly built and wearing Carnival outfits, traditional puppets get to ride this year's floats in the Cologne Rose Monday parade. The actual parade, a mega event, was cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Parade of a different kind
The Rose Monday parade in Cologne is the largest event of its kind in Germany, and draws up to a million visitors from all over the world to the city every year. But because of the pandemic, it won't be happening this year. As a replacement, the legendary Hänneschen Theater puppets, wearing all manner of fun costumes, will be featured in a mini televised parade on February 15.
Parade route as backdrop
Holger Kirsch, head of the traditional Rose Monday parade, presents 32 meters of stage scenery built for the event, reproducing the buildings the parade would traditionally march by on Rose Monday. In 2021, 155 puppets will be the stars of the mini-floats. Carnival is normally Cologne's biggest celebration, Kirsch argues — so it will still be underlined, "albeit quietly."
The jester's cap
The puppetmakers have even created a tiny version of the president of the parade: Holger Kirsch will ride in his very own mini float, the framework of a Cologne jester's cap adorned with tiny medallions showing the coats of arms of the city's many Carnival societies. The mini Rose Monday parade was built on a scale of 1:3.
Hoarding during the pandemic
During the lockdown at the start of the coronavirus pandemic last year, toilet paper was in short supply in Germany. Not least because the Germans bought toilet paper in almost inconceivable quantities. Panic-buying has its own verb in German: to "hamster." The float shows a hamster stuffing its cheeks with toilet paper.
Political satire
Carnival parades in Germany typically include floats with biting political satire. The float named "United" shows a Statue of Liberty split in two with an ax, symbolic of the divisions in the US. The bloody butcher's knife refers to the violent clashes during the recent election campaign. And there's a word on its grip: Trump.
Traditional corps
In addition to the 16 theme floats, the creators built tiny replicas of the floats that traditionally carry dignitaries from the Carnival societies, including the above Blaue Funken float. Founded in 1870, the Blaue Funken is one of the oldest Cologne Carnival societies and one of the nine traditional corps in the Cologne Carnival.