Cologne Festival, Germany

The Carnival tradition can be experienced throughout the world, but no place encompasses the extravagance and joy quite like the Carnival of Cologne. The German festival is a cornucopia of parties, parades and cheerful chaos that denotes the impending season of Christian Lent. Simply put, it’s when everyone decides to cut loose and let the good times roll in pure, unabated joy and drunken revelry.

Costumes are abundant at Carnival with local partakers — called Jecken — dressing up in their outfits, bursting with color, in order to liven up the town. The weeklong celebration typically kicks off with the annual Women’s Carnival Day at the end of February, wherein the ladies of the town dress to the nines in whimsical getups and dance through the streets. The parties continue throughout the day and night and bleed into the Sternmarsch the following day, wherein another march of costumes takes place.

On the third day, ghouls and goblins arrive during the Ghost Parade, where residents and guests dress up in their most nightmarish garb. On Sunday, the children and teachers take center stage while political satire is the name of the game during the Rose Monday parade.

Finally, the Carnival culminates on Violet Tuesday where partiers gather for the burning of the Nubbel, a life-sized straw doll meant to symbolize the debauchery that occurs during the festival. Plenty of bars around the city also burn their own version of the Nubbel, so no matter where you go you’ll have a drunken, merry time.