After a long and noisy night of New Year’s celebrations outside in the streets with everybody having their own fireworks, January 1 witnesses a true Mainz tradition, when the Fassenachtsguards march through the city — they officially took over on Nov. 11 and will protect the city and its inhabitants against humorless nit-picking pedants and stingy bean-counters at least till Ash Wednesday.

Only after the parade is over and about 3000 participants joined by their audience have gathered on the marketplace, do they greet each other with ‘Helau’.

So we greet you and hope that you will be protected from bean-counters and humorless pedants as well for the whole year to come!

In othe words: Prost Neujahr and Helau aus Deutschland and the best wishes for the new year!

All images in this post by courtesy of Jürgen Breuel

Preview:

February: Update on Student Activities (individual, program sponsored travel, culture projects)
Update on the team — Saying Good-bye and Welcome to the Team: We’re in the process of hiring 4 new tutors for Spring Term 2014.

March: Update on Internships for Spring 2014