World: Hello to the Flesh

In the Roman Catholic bastions of Bavaria, the riotous midwinter weeks of Fasching (from the German phrase "to pour from a barrel") serve roughly the same functions as carnival elsewhere in the Christian world. It is a season of merrymaking, mischiefing and fair-maidening begun by medieval Catholics who wanted to say a hearty "farewell to the flesh" (carne vale) before starting the Lenten regimen of fasting and penance on Ash Wednesday. In Munich, the capital of Fasching, the farewell involves a series of masquerades, formal balls and street parades, which lead to, among other effects, an increase in illegitimate births every...