The first week in November we attended the town’s turnip lantern parade. Just typing that out in English looks really weird! 🙂 Because we have never called it anything other than the Räebelichtliumzug. haha
Anyway, only Noah and Alexandra carved turnips this year. And next year Noah will be too old, and only Alexandra will be in the parade. Of course, we always have the option of carving our own at home, but somehow we never get around to it.
Sarah’s class was asked to help push a boy in Alexandra’s class so he could use his hands to hold his lantern. She and Tim volunteered and walked the whole parade with him.
Sophie’s class had the job of lighting all the lanterns and then walking the parade route to relight any candles that accidentally went out. We bought her a new lighter just for this important duty.
She and her friend Sheryn were fire buddies. 🙂
Noah carved his turnip completely on his own and did a pretty good job. Controlling those sharp knives isn’t it easy!
Along the parade route, there were some more kids from Sophie’s class controlling traffic, stopping cars and asking them to turn off their headlights as the kids went past. And at certain points, the whole group would stop and they would sing a few songs.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nrY8Ah1QJ6A
The parade stops where it starts, at the school. They had the local youth band play a few songs to entertain us. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yZ0sig7Frs
I was in a silly mood and Nick obliged and let Chris take a photo of me trying to dance with him.
After the music was over, the teachers handed out chocolate bars stuffed into soft rolls. And they also started serving barley soup. This soup is what the older kids look forward to every year. The one year they didn’t serve it, they were so, so, so sad. There is also warm punch to drink (alcoholic and non) and everyone just stands around and chats and enjoys the food.
When everyone had had their fill, ( I think Nick had 4 bowls) we headed home. Such a fun tradition that I hope we will still participate in even when we have no kids in the parade.