Fasching

Fasching is a traditional German celebration that means: "To Scare the Winter Away." At school, the 5th grade students make animal masks and run through the hallways being scary to make the winter weather go away. The younger kids wait outside their classrooms then follow, having a more peaceful parade through the school wearing costumes of bugs and other insects that you might see in the spring. This is Emma's class in the gym after finishing the parade, the kindergarten classes were all Bees.


Emma before school all ready to be a "biene."


Dancing bienen Jordyn and Emma.


They were having lots of fun dancing in their classroom!


I surprised Alyssa by coming to Fasching. She kept asking me earlier in the week if I could come, and I wasn't sure at first that Rebekah and I were allowed to attend (due to limited space in the school gym, sometimes parents are not encouraged to come to some of these activities, but I have discovered that the kindergarten classes will almost always take up any offer to help out.) This is when she saw us for the first time surprised that we were walking the parade route with Emma's class. She was so HAPPY we had made it.


Alyssa with her friends Alyssa and Molly all wearing their bird crowns. All the 3rd classes were different kinds of birds.


A lot of German music involves clapping and accordions, and at first Rebekah was really into it. About three fourth's of the way through I think she had enough, and she just wanted to lay down :)


All the children singing a song. I could only understand part of the chorus asking everyone to raise their hands and clap. I was surprised to see how interested Emma was in this song.


The Royal Court at Fasching.


The Royal Teachers. These teachers were chosen to lead the kids in singing silly songs. I think this part of the program was meant to be kind of silly and poking fun at them. The one with the yellow swim tube on sang a chorus about swimming, and I'm not sure why, but the one lifting over-sized glasses from her head was singing about toilet paper.

I'm going to go back to posting vacation photos after this, I just thought it was so funny that they did this celebration last Friday, then we woke up 8 inches of snow on the ground this morning.