TIMERIDEHistorical Blog
Cologne and Lent
“It’s all over on Ash Wednesday (it’s all over)
The oaths of loyalty, they break in two (they break in two)
I can no longer know about all your kisses
However beautiful it may be, then it’s all over.”
Jupp Schmitz – It’s all over on Ash Wednesday, 1953
by Astrid-Kristin Linne von Berg on 24.02.2026
The beginning of Lent in Cologne
After six days full of singing, parades, meetings and the one or two Kölsch is all over – Ash Wednesday marks the end of the session and the beginning of Lent. In Cologne, it is traditional on the evening of Veilchendienstag to celebrate the Nubbel is burned, a ritual with which the people of Cologne wash themselves clean of the sins they may have committed during the carnival season and enter Lent free of sin.
The carnival societies meet one last time on Ash Wednesday – without costumes and make-up – to eat fish together, thus honoring the name of their beloved tradition. This is because the word “carnival” is made up of the Latin words “carne” and “vale” and roughly translates as “meat, farewell!” During the following Lent, Christians should remember the Israelites’ 40 years of privation in the desert, as well as Jesus’ 40 days of prayer and fasting in the desert, and through their own fasting, to a small extent, relive the suffering and the feeling of renunciation.
Nowadays, fasting in society has been extended to include many stimulants and addictive substances: Alcohol, cigarettes, sweets, but also social media fasting and shopping fasts are commonplace. But what do the people of Cologne do to distract themselves during Lent?
Spring cleaning: productive distraction
Out with the old, rin with the new – spring cleaning! It’s a ritual whose roots go back a long way, but as is so often the case, even the ancient Romans the first references to this ritual, among others the so-called Februa–Firm. This was a cleaning festival at the end of the year, during which the temples and holy places were cleansed and the faithful symbolically rid themselves of their sinn cleansed. Washing oneself clean of one’s sins has not only existed in Cologne since the Nubbelverbrennungbut already in the times of CCAA – Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium.
For purification, the so-called februum were used, purification instruments – usually strips of goatskin – with which the priests (later called lupercii) touched passers-by to cleanse them of sins, promote the fertility of women and enable them to give birth easily. Animal sacrifices, such as goats or dogs, were also a common ritual of fertility and purification…perhaps it’s just as well that today we clean out our closets and wash the windows once a year instead.
Februa was replaced by the festival of Lupercalia in the course of Roman antiquity, but the rituals of purification and fertility remained. And one thing has not changed from ancient times to the present day: Spring cleaning is a way of saying goodbye to winter, welcoming spring and preparing for the rest of the year. It is also a good distraction to get through Lent.
Astrid-Kristin Linne von Berg
Studied art history at the University of Cologne, where she focused on the art market, building and monument conservation and early modern art history. However, her heart beats above all for costume and theater history, which is why she is motivated by the fact that the TIMERIDE locations are not only a place of living history in virtual reality, but also in real life.
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