Fastnacht

On our way home from church today we were surprised to find our main street closed off. Being new to the area, we had no idea that today is the biggest street carnival of the year for the little down of Binzen.
While some of the masks showed child friendly cartoon characters, many people were dressed up as witches, devils, demons and other scary characters. To sum it all up in one sentence: Fastnacht is the time of year just before the start of lent when people go crazy "letting their hair down" and using the anonymity of a mask/costume to behave immorally before the 'restrictive period' of lent begins.

Wikipedia definition: Fastnacht or Fasnacht is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and western Austria. The festival starts on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday, known in these regions as Schmotziger Donnerstag or Fettdonnerstag. In Standard German, schmutzig means "dirty", but in the Alemannic dialects schmotzig means "fat"; "Greasy Thursday", as remaining winter stores of lard and butter used to be consumed at that time, before the fasting began.