I am not going to say that the Dutch can out-party a Brazilian Carnival, if only because of the weather. But we come a long way, especially in the south of the county. As we’ll witness another edition of Carnival from February 18th – March 4th, I invite you to take a closer look at this yearly festival.
Carnival is traditionally a Roman Catholic festival. It was initiated by the catholic church, incorporating elements of the local pagan spring festivals. And you can still see that, if you look where Carnival is being celebrated. Both in which countries and, at least in the Netherlands, in which parts of the country: the traditionally Catholic provinces of Noord Brabant and Limburg. So ‘south of the rivers’, as the Dutch would call it.
Carnival is celebrated during the days preceding the Christian holidays of Lent. Having said that, nowadays many people no longer have any religious connotation whatsoever. For them it is just a nice reason to party. In spite of the western world’s going by a solar calendar, there are ‘lunar elements’ in the timing of carnival. Here we go: the 40 days preceding Easter was the traditional period of Lent. And the days before Lent are the period of Carnival. Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the full moon that occurs on or after the spring equinox. As a result of all this, the first possible Carnival can take place on February 1st, and the latest on March 9th.
From what I found, the origin of the word Carnival can be traced to the Latin expression Carne Levare. That can be translated as “farewell to the flesh” or “taking away the flesh”, which was a ritual to prelude Lent.
Of old Carnival was a period of ‘temporary societal role inversion’. For a couple of days per year, the fools would reign the country or the city, instead of the elite. And they would even mock the elite and the rulers, or their policies. By consensus, the rulers would let it be and even played along. Because they knew full well that this was a way to ‘let off some steam’, to release social tensions.
Even nowadays, in many Dutch cities, at the onset of Carnival the mayor of the city symbolically hands-over the key to the city to ‘the fool in chief’: Prince Carnival (*). Essentially every city or village changes its name, for the time being. During Carnival, Eindhoven is called ‘Lampegat’ (‘the lamp’s hole,’ with that ‘hole’ being Dutch slang for ‘a little village’). A reference to Philips Light Bulb industries. The leading motto this year is ‘Lampegat op zunne kop’ (Lampegat upside down). And yes, it is indeed only temporary: at the end of the Carnival period, Price Carnival will return the key of the city to the mayor.
(*) In a first for Eindhoven, this year’s Carnival will be headed by the city’s Princess Carnival.
Those who celebrate Carnival prepare in different manners. Some spend weeks designing and sewing a full outfit within a certain theme. Others just get themselves a shawl and/or a funny hat of some sort and dive in. In many cities, the local Carnival associations spend months building their contribution to the yearly Carnival parade. A giant display on wheels, often depicting a current news item, or some local political item (‘mocking the rulers’, remember?).
For some, Carnival is not complete if they have not been in what they see as one of the major Carnival cities, Like Den Bosch, Maastricht or Bergen op Zoom. But I can assure you that Eindhoven is more than capable of offering you a Carnival experience that you can fully submerge in.
The Eindhoven carnival parade will take place on Saturday afternoon, March 1st, from 1:11 pm. The entire program of the Eindhoven Carnival can be found at the website (in Dutch) of the Eindhoven Carnival Associations: Lampegat.com.
I wish you a lot of fun!
PS: be advised that, during Carnival, ‘normal life’ will more or less come to a standstill in the south of the Netherlands. Schools will be closed, and shops and public offices may have other than regular opening hours.
This blog was originally published in February 2023. It has been updated to include dates and information for Carnival 2025.