About European Carnival
Nine European Carnivals Types
by Henry F. M. van der Kroon
President FECC
- Rhineland Carnivals (West Germany, East Netherlands, Belgium)
A rich carnival tradition with Prince Carnival, Guards, Royal household and much parading.
- Burgundic Carnivals (province Brabant, Netherlands)
Everybody is equal, everybody same dress. - Mi-Careme ( Luxembourg, France, Walloon province/Belgium)
Mid lent celebration. Main cities Metz(F), Petange (Lux), Arlon, Hasselt. - Guggenmusik Carnivals (Switzerland, Liechtenstein)
A cacophony in beautiful dresses music-bands. Main cities are Basel, Zurich, Winthertur, Vaduz. - Allemanic Carnivals (South Germany)
- Balkan Folkloristic Carnivals
The masked participants are called Zvoncar’s (Croatia) Kurent (Slovenia), Gyros(Greece) , Kukeri’s, survakari’s , kamilari’s (Bulgaria/ Macedonia). All these participants wear strings of bells etc.
In orthodox countries carnival around Julian New Year, catholic countries during Mardi-Gras.
Furthermore in Southern Poland, Hungary and Slowakia there is a variant with masks but without bells.
Also in Austria you will find folkloristic traditions as in Eggersdorf (Graz). - Samba Carnivals / Caribbean Carnivals
Samba carnivals: Canarian Islands, Portugal, Madeira, Finland and Sweden
The two largest street festivals in Europe are Caribbean Carnival inspired with Brazilian and other synergistic influences from the Americas. These are Notting Hill Carnival in London and since 1980 the Caribbean Summer carnival in Rotterdam. There are dozens of Caribbean style summer Carnivals in Great Britain including Leeds (GB).
In Finland exists a National Association for Samba Schools. - Mediterrean Carnivals (famous for allegoric floats)
Malta, Italy (Viareggio, Putignano, Fano), Limassol(Cyprus), Nice (France), Sousse(Tunesia),
Gozo (Malta) , Patras (Greece), Rijeka, Samobor, Dubrovnik (Croatia), Cartagena, Murcia (Spain). - New carnivals and Summer Carnivals
More and more new carnivals appear in for example Russia (St. Petersburg, Pskov, Moscow)
The Aalborg and Copenhagen (Denmark) represent an even greater multi cultural Carnival style. Also there is the summer carnival along the Adriatic, most famous is the Senj Carnival (Croatia).
* Some very special carnivals which cannot fit in this attempt to categorize are Cadiz (Spain) with the Murga’s. Ivrea (Italy) with the battle of the oranges, and Binch (Belgium) with the Gilles.
