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Not being native to the Rheinland, Rhenish Karneval is a phenomenon that begs explanation.

So I asked a local legal mind to summarise the rules for me. That turns out to be rather difficult: a loosely pro-social subversion of the usual social order is the whole point. Instead of rules, the region is seized by a passionate pre-Lent commitment to the themes of Love, Cologne, and Kölsch. I even did this one in German to try and catch the cultural nuance— but in the end, the thing has to be seen to be believed. Immerse to comprehend.

Gernot Lehr is a prominent German media lawyer. While he’s in the business of upholding boundaries and counselling caution, he’s also a big advocate of adopting a more relaxed posture for a few days a year, to participate in the collective “psychological regeneration” that is Karneval.

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