Alaaf and Helau!
Posted by Valerie Ponell in Side Stories, February 23rd, 2009This is a little side note, especially for our non-German readers: If you should have tried to get hold on somebody on the phone these days, especially in the area of Cologne, and all you could hear was some weird German oompah music and people yelling “Alaaf” or “Helau” in the background, you should know that this strange behaviour is is an important part of German culture. It’s Carnival high season – or the fifth season, as we call it. You usually wear silly clothes, watch never-ending parades and try to catch as many sweets as possible. And, of course, eat jelly dougnuts, some of them decorated with funny faces or hats. And even if Berlin is not a German carnival stronghold, a bakery close to the zanox HQ sells the biggest jelly doughnuts you have ever seen! As a proof, we took a picture of our “Pfannkuchen” (as we call them here in Berlin), compared to a golf ball. And we equipped them with some funny German carneval hats. Helau and Alaaf everybody!
Tags: Carnival, doughnuts, Pfannkuchen