Sorry, Ruthie, we don't need a special season to criticize our pols. We do it all the time. And they provide us plenty of scandals and embarassing stories for us to throw up at them.
I wrote an article a year or so ago about my first experience with Fasching. I have always been a fan. Have a fun time and sing a few of my favorites for me: "Es gibt kein bier auf Hawaii", and "Umpah, Umpah, Umpah, Tataree" (Spelling?) and "Ein, zwei Sofa". My best to you all, especially you, Ruth.
I remember your story about Fasching. It is a great tradition. Usually though, politics aren't made fun of on a small local level, at least not in a public capacity as in a revueshow (sort of) in the city hall or highschool gym. But during carneval, the local city council, county board, etc. are made fun of and teased, and important national events as well. But the emphasis is on local events. Tomorrow they raise the so called "fools tree" in town, a large evergreen tree which is felled and brought into town by the carpenters guild. There's gonna be a huge parade where the local carneval clubs (castle witches, swamp ghouls etc.) march. The jesters (narren) are organized in a sort of guilds and on fat thursday they mockarrest the mayor of the city and put him and his whole city council on trial. It is a humorous affair, with lots of drinking and singing afterwards. Thanks for the good wishes, I will probably have fun. You got the songs right, too.
Oh wow--what a great tradition. It's like a national SNL.
Would be awesome in the US to have one week a year where they aired nothing but coverage of this sort of thing on the national and local news. A man can dream.
You can watch some on Youtube - that is if you understand german. One special feature is that the mockery and criticism isn't done by proffesional comedians or showmasters but by regular people who get up on stage once a year. It is usually done in rhyme verse, so it takes some creativity to write a speech like that.
