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In Rottweil, Germany, masked figures march down the street, making jumps with the aid of a wooden pole.

A procession of giant floats maneuver up and down a boulevard in Viareggio, Italy.

In Binche, Belgium, odd characters wearing orange costumes and masks with painted-on glasses, beards and mustaches parade through the town.

In Basel, Switzerland, the sounds of drums and piccolos swirl through the darkness as masked musicians march in all directions along city streets and back lanes.

In Cologne, close to 1 million costumed celebrants line a parade route to be pelted with candy.

Once again the fools are loose for that wild, wacky time of the year, those days of folly and fun, of masks, parties and parades of the carnival season.

It is called Fasching, Fastnacht, Karneval, Carnevale or Masopust, and it is celebrated in Germany, Italy, Croatia, Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Belgium, Spain, Switzerland and elsewhere.

The origin of the names and the celebration itself is shrouded in a mask of mystery.

The name might come from the Latin carne vale, meaning "meat, farewell," or carne levare, "away with meat." In Czech, Masopust has the same connotation. The German Fastnacht refers to the night before fasting begins on Ash Wednesday.

Many trace the celebrations back to pagan customs of driving out the evil spirits of winter. Others say they are rooted in ancient Greek celebrations for the god of wine, Dionysus. For Christians it became a time to eat, drink and be merry before the barren days of Lent.

No matter what its roots, and no matter what it is called, from now until Ash Wednesday — and in a few places a little longer — this pre-Lenten festival has much of Europe in its grasp.

In parts of Germany the carnival season starts at 11:11 on 11/11, but things don’t really get under way until the heisse Phase — the hot phase — from the Thursday before Ash Wednesday to that day’s wee hours. Weiberfastnacht, or women’s carnival, starts the celebrations on Thursday a day known as Schmotzigen Donnerstag in the Black Forest. Cologne is the place to be on this day, when women take over the town hall and cut off men’s ties. The big day in Germany is Rosenmontag, or Rose Monday, when more than a million people line the streets of Cologne, Düsseldorf and Mainz for their big parades featuring floats — with folks aboard tossing candy and other items — costumes and marching bands.

The Black Forest in southwest Germany is also known for its celebrations and parades. The most famous are the Narrensprung, or fools jump, in Rottweil, and the Da-Bach-Na-Fahrt in Schramberg, where costumed riders try to navigate tubs down a 600-yard-long stretch of river.

The highlight of Munich Fasching is the Tanz der Markt-frauen, where market women perform dances on Shrove Tuesday.

In Italy, popular celebrations are in Venice, Viareggio and Acireale on Sicily.

More than 100,000 people overfill Acireale’s main square and streets for the elaborate costumes and colorful floats of its Carnevale celebrations, and in Viareggio the floats are the parade’s main attraction. They are gigantic — some 60 feet tall and 45 feet wide and capable of carrying as many as 200 dancing, costumed revelers. From the floats, confetti rains on the spectators below. Tens of thousands of them line the parade route, singing, dancing and drinking.

The two mainstays of Croatian carnival are Rijeka and Split. The high point of the Rijeka celebrations is the parade on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday. In Split, costumes and merriment also make the carnival season a crazy time of celebration.

In Prague, Masopust is celebrated in the Zizkov district, and usually ends with a parade through the streets of Prague.

In Maastricht, Netherlands, it is party time from the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, when the Mooswief, an effigy of a city statue, is raised on a mast and remains there until she is lowered again at exactly midnight Tuesday. On Monday afternoon, the Zaate Herrenmeniekes, the Carnival bands, walk through town, playing in bars and end up on the Vrigthof, a town square, where a jury selects the best band. From then until the stroke of midnight, it is party time.

Shrove Tuesday is the day of the Gilles in Binche, with their orange costumes and mustached masks. In the early hours of the morning, the drummers of the society go from house to house drumming up their members. Then between 10 a.m. and noon they perform dances in front of the city hall. The Grand Parade begins at 3 p.m. with the Gilles dressed in hats decorated with ostrich feathers.

The places to celebrate in Spain are in Cadiz, where the celebrations start on the Thursday before Ash Wednesday and last until the Sunday after, and on the Canary Islands in the Atlantic Ocean.

In Nice, France, His Majesty King Carnival rules. Highlights are the "Bataille de Fleurs" — the Battle of Flowers — parades with colorful floats adorned with flowers and beautiful women who pelt spectators with blossoms, and the carnival parades that take place in daylight and at night.

The Morgenstraich in Basel begins at exactly 4 a.m. when all the lights in the city center go off. In pitch darkness, the sound of drums and piccolos waft through the cold night air. Closer and closer it comes, and a faint light glows in the distance. Suddenly, there they come, from all directions, the masked musicians of the Fastnacht cliques of the city. For hours this eerie procession crisscrosses the old town playing their strange melodies. At dawn it is over. Spectators and participants retreat into bars, cafes and restaurants, to have a drink and warm up with the traditional Mehlsuppe, a thick flour soup.

In the afternoon, the bands start up again and the fun continues.

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