Julia vs. Witches (The Battle Begins)

During the season before Lent, known in our area as Fastnet, each town has its own traditional parade. Together with our friend David Smith, we went to the biggest one around here, in Rottenberg, the city where the Catholic Church seats its bishop in our area (and Fastnet is traditionally catholic).

At this parade, people with amazingly intricate carved wooden masks dress up like various animals and characters - chief among which are the witches. The witches capture the spirit of the parade and the season, which is apparently to get all your mischievousness out before the season of repentance begins. So they run through the parade pestering the crowd. Julia was: 1. Given a noogie; 2. smeared with paint on her face; 3. stuffed with confetti; 4. drawn on with a marker; 5. had hay smashed in her face. In this, she actually got off easier than the people who were kidnapped and harassed as a spectacle for the crowds. We'll let the pictures and videos do the rest of the explaining:

Note the unsuspecting teenager who has been kidnapped from the crowd:

If you look closely you can see the victim being smothered with hay in the spinning contraption in this video:
 

This was easily the most fun we've ever had at a parade.