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| poster for Carneval |
It's been a rather long and bitterly cold snap this winter in Prague and throughout Europe. People were bundled up to the eyeballs (literally) in -15 C. temperatures. It was long underwear, woolen caps and triple and quadruple layers on the upper body.
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| carnevale mask |
Now, it's time to bid winter goodbye and party before the Lenten season—yup, it's Mardi Gras time. The Venetian Carnavale and New Orleans' Mardi Gras are a couple of the better known ones, but Prague also has a long tradition of pre-lenten carnivals, interrupted during the Communist era, but being revived again as the Bohemian Carnevale.
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| comedy show in Old Town |
The festivities last about a week and end with Ash Wednesday signaling the start of Lent in Roman Catholicism. Lent, of course, is supposed to be a time of fasting and penance for one's “sinful life”, but before the penitence let the party roll on (adding on, I suppose, to the shopping cart of “sins” for which Lent is all the more necessary).
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| anti-ACTA demonstration |
We have had a look see at some of the events (comedy shows every hour in the Old Town Square) and are going to watch a masked parade from Prague Castle, past our neighborhood, and on to the Old Town Square today. These events are free for the watching. BTW, there happened to be a large demonstration opposing Internet censorship at the same time as that comedy show the day we were there. The demonstration attracted far more people than the show in fact.
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| Clam Gallas Palace entrance |
Tomorrow night we have tickets for an evening concert of baroque music and dancing to be held in an old baroque palace with an interesting name—Clam-Gallasův palác—across the Moldau River from here in Lesser Town. Not an opera, but we like baroque music and are looking forward to this concert.
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