Laetare Sunday celebrations come in many forms, including the Summer Day’s Play, which takes place March 15 in the rustic German village of Forst an der Weinstrasse. (brauchtumsverein-forst.de)
According to the calendar most commonly followed by the majority of Christian churches in Europe, March 15 marks the fourth Sunday within the period of Lent. In church tradition, this is an exceptional day, a time when the faithful are allowed a little lightheartedness and fun within what’s otherwise the most serious time of year. The day, known as Laetare Sunday, derives its name from a form of the Latin word meaning “rejoice,” and is the first word spoken in the traditional verse for this day’s Mass. Depending on where you are, the date takes on various meanings.
Mothering Sunday
In the United Kingdom and Ireland, the day is celebrated as Mothering Sunday, a day set aside for honoring one’s mother. In earlier times, it was the day when people would return to their “mother church” for a special service. Domestic servants would look forward to the day, as it also gave them the chance to visit their families. The day is celebrated much as the U.S. marks Mother’s Day, with moms receiving flowers, cards and chocolates, or being invited to a pub or restaurant for a nice meal they didn’t have to cook. Another tradition is the eating of simnel cake, a fruit cake with marzipan in the middle and often topped with marzipan balls representing the apostles. This cake, also popular at Easter, can be found at many specialty bakeries.
Carnival returns
In many cities and towns in Wallonia, Belgium’s southern, French-speaking region, Laetare Sunday is a day for full-blown carnival celebrations. In Stavelot, it’s the day when hundreds of Blancs-Moussis, unmistakable in their white hooded robes and masks with turned-up red noses, take to the streets, showering revelers with confetti and bonking them with balloons made of dried pig bladders. These mischevious figures dance and prance, but do not speak, instead emitting the odd squeal or grunt. They can be caught in action from 1:30 p.m., when a grand parade with some 2,500 participants gets underway. Adult entry to the parade costs 5 euros; children under the age of 12 enter free. Online: laetare-stavelot.be/en
The Belgian city of Andenne, in the Province of Namur, is the site of the Carnaval des Ours, or Carnival of the Bears. The highlight is a parade consisting of a couple dozen floats, three giant bear puppets and about 500 marchers dressed in bear costumes. Local girls watching the parade must beware, lest they get snatched up by local lads and locked up in a cage. Festivities culminate with the tossing of hundreds of teddy bears from the balcony of the Town Hall. The parade gets underway at 2 p.m. Online: andenne.be/carnaval2026
In the town of Fosses-la-Ville, the day belongs to Les Chinels, masked characters clad in brightly colored silk and satin tunics and sporting two humps, one on the back and one on the chest. From 2 p.m., they’ll take to the streets alongside stilt walkers, drummers and other street entertainers. Online: tinyurl.com/5f298yyw
Summer Day Parades
Sommertagszüge are springtime celebrations largely confined to the Rhine-Neckar area of the Palatinate and Baden regions of Germany. This custom of pagan origins alludes to the victory of the summer season over winter. Parade participants are mostly children, who carry sticks decorated with a pretzel, blown-out egg and brightly colored ribbons or crepe paper. Places with sizable parades include Heidelberg (departing from St. Anna Gasse at 3 p.m.) and Speyer (departing from south of the cathedral at 2 p.m.); the latter ends with the burning of the effigy of a snowman. Online: tinyurl.com/4yrbftpa
The Summer Day’s Play
The battle between summer and winter takes place with both words and swords in Forst an der Weinstrasse, a rustic wine village just south of Bad Dürkheim, Germany. As part of what’s known as a “Hanselfingerhut-Spiel,” two characters wearing costumes that look like small huts, one representing winter and the other summer, argue about which season has the greater merits, stopping occasionally to engage in pretend sword battles. Meanwhile, a character known as the Hanselfingerhut is on the loose. This energetic fool, covered in blackface, makes a beeline toward the female spectators. He hugs and kisses them, leaving their cheeks a smudgy mess. This black goo should not be wiped away; otherwise summer weather might not appear at all over the coming year. Online: tinyurl.com/35j4tb2z
