Carnival Maastricht

After having worked for a mere three days in the Teaching Hotel Chateau Bethlehem during my internship I already had my first days off. Why? Because it was Carnival! The teaching hotel Chateau Bethlehem is open most of the time except for a few exceptions. It is closed 5 weeks during summer, couple days during Christmas and then during Carnival. However, during other holidays like Easter, Kingsday or Labour day the hotel is just a normal hotel and is open.

What surprised me more than the fact that the hotel was closed during carnival was that it was closed even when carnival was already over. Carnivals last official day was Tuesday the 9th of February. Nevertheless, we were free until Friday the 11th of February. I asked my supervisor, but she also didn’t know why we had two extra days off. I think it's because of the students doing their practical’s, since students have vacation for a week from school and the new semester does not have practical’s yet they have no students to work in the hotel.

Besides that I was a bit confused that carnival was seen as such a important part of the culture that the hotel closes. Carnival has been around since the 16th century. Preparations always start on the 11th November on the Vrijthof. Thousands of people from the regions around Maastricht get together dressed up and celebrate the start of Carnival season. On the Saturday of carnival the Prince gets picked up at the Station and together with a parade goes to the Markt. During the rest of the day and night people walk around the city dressed up and mostly with a beer in their hand. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday there are more shows, waggons that play loud music, mostly traditional Dutch carnival songs, and more people dressed up. All in all, it’s a couple of days of very well organized drinking and dressing up.

I grew up in the north of the Netherlands where they do not celebrate Carnival. However, I did experience a few days of carnival last year so it wasn’t a completely new concept to me. And yet again I was impressed by all the work and thought that gets put into some of the waggons and costumes that are paraded around the city as well as the amounts of alcohol people in the south can consume. I think it is a great tradition and everyone should get a couple days off from work to enjoy and celebrate it.

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