Whether you are Protestant, Catholic, or of other faiths, seeing the standards parade through the main aisle of the cathedral is one of the most magical moments of the session. Representatives of large and small societies came together for the ecumenical service in the cathedral for carnivalists on Wednesday to receive the blessing for the session.
Part of this is the impressive entrance of the Plaggen. During the service, their proud bearers sat with the dancing couples in the choir room behind the altar. It’s lucky that Cologne has the cathedral; there aren’t many churches that can accommodate all the standards of traditional societies. City dean Robert Kleine blessed only 17 of the handcrafted flags individually, all of which are being paraded through the halls for the first time this session. Kleine showed humor: “You already know me, you have everyone well secured,” he joked as he dripped the holy water in her direction. The plagues are wrapped in foil for protection, not least because of the often rainy trains.
Kleine led the traditional ecumenical service together with city superintendent Bernhard Seiger. With him, the people of Cologne start the fun in January: Now it’s really getting started, because the children’s triumvirate has lit the blessed carnival candle. The collection will benefit the children’s triumvirate’s donation project, Kleine Hilfe Köln. Christof Kuckelkorn, President of the Festival Committee, also gave a celebratory speech. The great triumvirate presented the intercessions together with her younger counterpart.
Everything about Brings
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“Love wins: Congregation sings carnival hits between hymns
Musically, the service also differed from the usual routine in the cathedral. Between church songs, the colorful congregation also sang the carnival hit “Love Wins” by Brings – a song with surprisingly harmonious lyrics for a church service.
Numerous triumvirates from the region also came to the service – an almost bizarre clash of madness on madness, as there is usually only one triumvirate per stage or even city. They were not deterred by the security checks in two tents in front of the cathedral. The farmers had to take off their large feathered hats and the maidens had to endure inspections along their legs hidden under their wide skirts. That didn’t seem to bother the still mostly male triumvirate – some of them wore jeans underneath anyway to protect against the howling wind on the cathedral plate.
Cologne Cathedral: No weapon-like parts of the uniform are allowed at carnival services
There were still strict security measures around the cathedral. The police agreed with the participating companies not to carry weapon-like parts of the uniforms. For example, some sparks carry sabers because the traditional corps were founded as a satire of the military. Not wearing parts of the uniform is likely to be a rare experience for the members; the club is often punished for forgetting parts of the uniform when appearing in public. This day was an exception. Police said there were no incidents at the highly guarded cathedral on Wednesday evening.
The festival committee had also previously called on Instagram to leave sabers, knabouses and ammunition bags at home. The flag bearers, who usually wait in front of the cathedral portal for the service to begin, now started in a side aisle. That might have made their job easier; waiting on the stormy Domplatte with the heavy plagues in hand had proven to be a challenge in recent years anyway.
2024-01-03 21:13:29
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