page_title: Carnival in the Netherlands
section_title: Carnaval parades
hierarchical_section_title: Carnival in the Netherlands / Carnaval customs / Carnaval parades
caption_attribution_description: Prins Stan http://www.keien.nl
context_page_description: Carnival in the Netherlands is a festival held mainly in the Southern and Eastern regions of the Netherlands with an emphasis on role-reversal and the suspension of social norms, as part of celebrations of Carnival. The feast was assimilated by the Catholic Church, taking elements from ancient pagan spring festivals and is celebrated in the three days preceding the Christian holidays of Ash Wednesday and Lent.
  From an anthropological point of view, Carnival is a reversal ritual, in which social roles are reversed and norms about desired behavior are suspended. Winter was thought of as the reign of the winter spirits that were to be driven out for summer to return. Carnival can thus be regarded as a rite of passage from darkness to light, from winter to summer: a fertility celebration, the first spring festival of the new year.
  It precedes the Christian penitential season of Lent. The first day of Carnaval is six weeks before Easter Sunday. Carnival officially begins on Sunday and lasts three days until the start of Lent's first day, Ash Wednesday, at midnight.
context_section_description: In many places, large carnaval parades are held with large floats, organized and created by the carnaval associations. These are called D'n Optocht or D'n Boonte Störrem (The Motley Storm). The parades have usual a particular theme whereby authorities are ridiculed and criticized, events of the past year are represented and which are often politically incorrect and used to make people think outside the box or function as a mirror to the society. Also groups or individuals on foot will participate and fill the gaps between the carnaval wagons during the parade. Fanfares and marching bands will provide for typical carnaval music. The floats are built by carnaval associations, but also often by independent groups of friends, families, neighbourhoods or other clubs. A massive ship-looking wagon is shown in every carnaval parade which is manned by the prince, his entourage and the council of eleven of the city it is held or of the carnaval association that organized the parade and is usually the last float at the parade. Carnaval parades often start at 11.11 am and end early in the afternoon. Some wil start in the afternoon to give participants the opportunity to join several parades a day and to give the public and participants the opportunity to be somewhat more sober / less hangover after the drinking of the day before. In that case they will start at 11 past the hour as well. Usually a competition will be held to choose the most outstanding contribution to the parade with separate categories for floats, groups on foot and individual participants. Although a procession usually takes from a starting point to a point of arrival, it actually roams from nowhere to nowhere. What only matters is the social binding during the parade. Along the route, the crowd forms a very essential part of the parade. The crowd is not just spectator, they form living dikes along the carnaval river without which the parade would lose meaning.
  Also separate children's parade are sometimes held which focuses not on ridiculing and criticism, but on role changing and dressing.
caption: Youth prince Stan and adjutant of "Keiengat" (Waalre), 2006
exif: {}