Carnival’s women revelers take over the Rhineland for a day, dancing, drinking and kissing

COLOGNE, Germany (AP) — At 11:11 a.m. on Thursday, hundreds of thousands of carnival revelers took over the streets of the Rhineland in western Germany, dancing, singing, drinking and showing off their colorful costumes.

In many places, women stormed city halls, symbolically taking power for one day — which is why carnival’s Fat Thursday in this region is traditionally called Weiberfastnacht, or the carnival of the women.

According to another tradition, men get a kiss if they allow women to cut off their ties or shoelaces. On this day, kisses are famously exchanged not just among partners, but strangers as well.

In cities like Cologne, Düsseldorf, Bonn and Mainz, Karnevalisten — as the revelers are called in German — threw confetti, toasted with beer and swayed together on the streets. In addition to typical German brass band music, the sound of samba was in the air, too.

Bakeries sell vast quantities of jelly donuts during carnival — the so-called fifth season of the year — which lasts from Fat Thursday to Ash Wednesday ahead of Lent in the traditionally Roman Catholic Rhineland.

Across the region, police increased their presence following a recent series of stabbings and other attacks.

State Interior Minister Herbert Reul said that 9,900 police officers were on duty in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia — 2,500 more than on a regular Thursday, German news agency dpa reported.

But despite the recent attacks that have scared many in Germany, Cologne Mayor Henriette Reker called on the revelers to celebrate without fear.

“Nobody will succeed in intimidating us in Cologne,” she said. “We will not let terrorists or Islamists take away our joy of life.”

Reker herself was stabbed and critically wounded by a far-right extremist in Oct. 2015, while campaigning for the office of mayor. She was elected the following day while in an induced coma and took office about a month later.