Cologne Carnival , Germany

Since time immemorial, The Cologne festival, is one of the biggest street festival been celebrated with great festivity and vigor. The festival appears to be a fancy dress competition, where the entire population dress up in dazzling style and colorful dresses. Often termed as Köln carnival, its history dates back to 1341 and since then the festival has been able to engage people in its colors.

It is an annual festival and held in the month of November. On this day, the streets of Cologne are shaded with merrymaking colorful people who rejoice to celebrate one of the biggest street festival of Germany.

Officially it starts on 11th November at 11:11am and continues in a fairly low-key way for about three months before the Tolle Tage (Crazy Days) which climax on Rosenmontag, the 42nd day before Easter. During this period, there are few important dates in the carnival New Year (January1st) and Festival of the Three Kings on January 6th.

The highlights of the carnival is the Woman parade where each woman has the right to break of ties from their man and kiss the guy they want to. An unusual traditional that has been followed years after years.

Approximately a million people come to celebrate the final round of the Cologne Festival - Rosenmontag Parade. Taste the famous beer of the region the Kölsch while spreading the word of happiness.