Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Scaring Away the Winter on a Beautiful White Day

Every year at this time, the girls' school has Fasching. It is a traditional German festival meant to scare the winter away. The kids parade around the school being as loud as they can be, dressed as all different kinds of animals. For the second year in a row, we have celebrated Fasching on a beautiful, white, winter day full of SNOW. Apparently the festival doesn't have much of a track record for success, but it's really exciting for the kids, and quite a thing to see!
 
Even the teachers get into the celebration, dressing up as lady bugs. The exterminator in the background is the school's engineer. It's funny because all throughout the assembly I heard the male teachers and staff joking around about how silly the celebration is and speculating as to how our school mascot ever became the lady bug. I think this festival alone may very well be the reason! And while it is really silly, it's pretty much become a right of passage for all the 5th grade classes {who are the "stars" of the show} to run through the school scaring away the snow and cold with all their animal masks on. Something I hope they continue for years to come.


 
Rebekah hiding in the Kindergarten coat rack. It can get a little loud for the little ones. When else are the students allowed to run through the halls yelling and ringing cow bells? That's of course the part that all the older kids LOVE!


 
A parade of lady bugs.


 
Little Froggie Emma coming around the corner.


 
Orange Kitty Alyssa excited to see us.


 
This might be the scariest face I saw all day :-)


 
Alyssa in the sea of kids assembled in the gym.


 
Kahiwa too, peeking through the masses as her friend Bella holds her up to see me.


 
The Winter Wonderland outside the doors of school during Fasching.


 
It was the beautiful kind of snow that stuck to all the tree branches and bushes in giant, sparkling clumps. Very pretty, so we won't complain that winter hasn't left us quite yet.

1 comment:

KmCaCFamilyof5 said...

Those are some very pretty wintery pictures. We didn't get any snow this year? :( I love the frog costume :)