Talk:Fastelavn

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Festivals

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Comments[edit]

This article is very, very wrong. One of the biggest celebrations in the World has many names: Carnival (south Europe, Germany), Fastelovend/Vastenavond/Fastelavn (Germany, Netherlands, Scandinavia), Shrovetide (England), Mardi Gras (USA) etc. Associated events, like pancake day, Ash wednesday etc., are also sometimes celebrated in Denmark. If you would ask a German, what the difference is between fastelavn and karnival, the answer would be: "The dialect you speak". Both words mean the same literally and culturally. Dybdahl 13:24, 8 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I changed the article to describe this. Dybdahl 13:35, 8 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I would like to see references to the relation to "fastelovend".. That sounds very wrong. It is danish(and german) tradition to name the night before a holiday -aften (or -abend in german). For instance juleaften, mortensaften, sankt hans aften. -avn is just a old danish dialect of -aften. That -lovend sounds like it is just accidental and is not the source of the name. Please add references. Carewolf 15:55, 9 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

An easy reference is to google it or to look in wikipedia on Limburgish, Ripuarian, Low saxon. I have lived in Bonn for 10 years, and basically, fastelovend is the Germanic word for the latin word carnival, covering much of Germany, Netherlands, Luxembourgh, Scandinavia. It is written in a few different ways, but Fastelovend seems to be the most prevalent way of writing it in Germany. However, I think that you should divide the word into "fastel-ovend", where "ovend" is the local word that means evening (related to German "abend" or dutch "avond"). For instance here, where you can see Düx am ovend (Deutz in the evening): http://www.fotocommunity.de/pc/pc/display/5381479. Please note that the official German language is really very much an imposed language on much of Germany, and that the dialects of north Germany are really closer to normal Danish dialects or Dutch in many regards, than to official German. Dybdahl 18:58, 10 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Beating the hell out of a cat.[edit]

I was over at the piñata page and it came up that there is an obvious similarity, which does not necessarily mean causal connection but, I was wondering if any editors of this article know how long this cat-beating has been going on, and in the form of a barrel delivering sweets for children, whether, to be blunt, the Danes nicked it off the Mexicans :) (or more probably the Spanish). Thx! Hakluyt bean 23:49, 6 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]

We know Fastalavn has been celebrated back to something like 1500, it is believed that it replaced a pagan spring-celebration, and "Slå katten af tønnen" has been described as a remaining "Pagan" tradition. As a tradition that has survived Christianity would make a more than 1000 years old. Carewolf 08:13, 7 June 2007 (UTC)[reply]