Celebrating Carnival at Valkenburg

Carnival was an event that I manage to experience when I was in the Netherlands in February together with the family. Whilst it was fun to see the parades and people dressed up, unfortunately for us, most of the tourist spots were closed. We couldn’t check out the castle and several caverns but oh well, the kids had fun running around and seeing the parade as well as trying to pick up the sweets being thrown from the parade vehicles.

Here is the definition of Carnival from Wikipedia,

Carnival in the Netherlands (Dutch: Carnaval; also called β€œvastenavond” – eve of the fasting or Limburgish: β€œvastelaovend”) 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.

Check out the photos from the event I took throughout the afternoon.

Leave a ReplyCancel reply