Monday, November 13, 2006

Vasteloavend!Vasteloavend! Tschingelingelingenboem!

The 11th of November is also the launching of the carnival season in North-Brabant and Limburg as well as in the Rhineland; the whole region beyond the border (Aachen, Köln...). Thus in Maastricht too there was a celebration. Everything started the 11/11 at 11.11 in the morning. It is called in the local dialect(the Limburgs) "vasteloavend" (/vasteloːvənd/ literally "Fasting evening", although that strictly refers only to the last day). Of course, it is the occasion to sing the many tunes (Vasteloavend Leedsjes) typically associated with the event!

I wish everybody "inne noekketieje vasteloavend"(a happy 'vasteloavend')!

3 comments:

Lieven Vandelanotte said...

Hi Xavier,
Thanks for this bit of 'local colour' from Maastricht. Can I just ask how you got that schwa symbol inserted -- did you use Alt + some complicated number or is there another way?
Best wishes,
LV

Xavier O. said...

No problem, mister Vandelanotte, it was my pleasure to let you discover a little aspect of the life in Limburg. For the schwa I simply did a copy-paste from a schwa that I found on wikipedia. It is as simple as that in fact. But I bet that you are right and that it would be possible to use alt+ something.

See you tomorrow at the "souper germa".

Xavier

Lieven Vandelanotte said...

Thanks -- much easier than using codes of course. Long live copy-paste :) LV