"Alaaf" is the first thing that comes to mind for Ursula Dreeser, head teacher of the school Bonns Fünfte. "I think it's important to teach the children carnival culture." On Weiberfastnacht, the school has a party in the sports hall, with dancing and music, and prizes are awarded for the best costumes.

"I like carnival a lot, it brings people together," says Dreeser. "But it's also a question of how much we can really celebrate in the current situation?" She is thinking of the many victims of the earthquake in Turkey or the people displaced by the war in Ukraine. For her, carnival makes things a little lighter even in difficult times, it provides some respite from the suffering.

This is something she herself has experienced: Three years ago, her father died at carnival. He had been taken into intensive care on the Saturday. As always, she had invited her siblings with their children and a few friends for breakfast on Rosenmontag. " Afterwards, some went to the parade, some to the intensive care unit," she says. Her father died on Ash Wednesday. These are memories that will always be associated with carnival for her. She is still thinking about what she will do on Rosenmontag this year.

And what about school exams? "The school year is very short. We had to weigh things up," says Dreeser. The idea is as follows: Students sit their exams then rush off into carnival. This only affects grades 12 and 13, and there are no more exams until Ash Wednesday, so everyone can celebrate unhindered. "I think this solution is reasonable," says Dreeser.

At Helmholtz-Gymnasium, too, some pupils are taking exams. "But they should be through by about 11.30 a.m.," says head teacher Dorothee von Hoerschelmann. She herself comes to school in costume, this year probably as a butterfly. "I'm from Hamburg, but I'm not averse to carnival," says the headmistress. She says she is suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms after the pandemic.

There are no exams on Weiberfastnacht at the Hardtberg Grammar School. "That’s something we try to avoid," says head teacher Günther Schlag. And like all schools in North Rhine-Westphalia, Rosenmontag is a day off anyway. On Weiberfastnacht, the pupils are allowed to leave after the fourth lesson. There is no big carnival party, but many teachers and pupils come in costume anyway. Schlag has already gone as a crocodile and as Julius Caesar - as a Latin teacher, he thinks that is appropriate.

Eike Schultz is going as the President of the Carnival Festivities. The director of the Tannenbusch grammar school says: "The students should celebrate". That's why they don't have to take exams. But because the school year is so short, it was a bit of an effort to plan the event. After school, the students can then go out. In previous years, this was always done in an orderly manner, says Schultz, who also used to work in Cologne, where things were different. "There, the carnival period was planned together with the public order office and the police," he says.

And what does it look like at Bonn companies? At the postal service, people work normally. They used to have the day off on Rosenmontag, says press officer Alexander Edenhofer. Today, if you want to party, you have to clock out or take a day off. There will be a carnival party at the Posttower, where the best costumes will be crowned. Edenhofer, by her own reckoning not an overly keen carnival-goer, has already won once with her colleagues from public relations. They went as Donald Trump and fake news.

But at Haribo, there is no party, and the company doesn't close down on any of the carnival days. If you want to party, you have to take the day off. It's different at the city hall: there's a party in the canteen, which is not only for employees, but also open to the public. The city's deputy press officer can't say much about the quality of the party, but he knows one thing for sure: there's half a day off on Weiberfastnacht, and a whole day off on Rosenmontag. (See the infobox for the opening hours of the municipal facilities.)

At the energy supplier Knauber, Rosenmontag is also a day off. On Weibrfastnacht the staff eat breakfast together, says press officer Alexander Cöln. Anyone who wants to party afterwards has to take half a day off. A lot of staff come to the office in costume, including Cöln - this year as Luke Skywalker from the film Star Wars. That makes sense because he recently became a father and he can dress up his daughter as Yoda.

At Telekom, employees have to take leave if they want to go to the pub or to the parade. That's what press spokesperson Peter Kespohl explains. He spent some time in Kiel on business, where pirates are a good costume, but he also likes to dress up as a clown. In Kiel, he once worked on Rosenmontag. "That's when I watched the Cologne and Aachen parades on TV."

(Original text: Dennis Scherer / Translation: Jean Lennox)