Today is Faschingsdienstag, Mardi Gras, Shrove Tuesday – a day known by many different names and celebrated in as many cultures. Today is the day the carnival season ends and the day before Lent begins, and it’s the day of celebration and in many places traditional carnival parades take place, children and grownups dress up, and the final hurray’s are heard before the period of Lent that’ll last till Easter begins.
There is a huge variety of customs and traditions associated with Carnival celebrations, just between the German-speaking countries of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany alone. The customs to celebrate vary considerably from country to country. Here in Austria, Carnival is called Fasching, which refers to the festivities occurring before Lent. The carnival season begins each year on the 11th of November at 11:11 am and ends today on Faschingsdienstag, which is characterized by dressing up, loud music, dancing, masked parades, silliness, and general mischief. Of course, like many other holidays and traditions in the era of social distancing, this year we’ll learn new ways to celebrate while staying healthy and safe.
Finding inspiration in the spirit of carnival, matching beautiful photographs with our favorite papers
And while we’re steering clear of parades and crowded bars this year, there’s no reason to not celebrate with those closest to you at the safety of your own home. To help you get into the carnival spirit, we’ve built different mood images, in which we combine beautiful photographs of carnival celebrations from around the world, with our favorite design papers, for your inspiration.
To see how inspiration is all around us, see our previous articles Inspiration + Paper = Grey & Yellow (Pantone Color of the Year 2021) and Inspiration + Paper = Famous Movie Scenes and Inspiration + Paper = Iconic Capitals of the World.
