Carnival 2021 – Crazy on The Safe Side

Carnival for Germans peaks in a long weekend from Thursday to Tuesday and is celebrated in different ways depending on the region. Karneval in the West and Fasching in the South, for example. This year, it was cancelled for the whole of Germany. Another typical German long weekend holiday missed due to Corona lockdown. We had expected our participants in the community would complain. However, interestingly, for most this wasn’t the case, and it wasn’t missed as much as we would have expected. Some people had even forgotten about it. Others enjoyed the good sides like Krapfen or Berliner from home along with some special TV sessions. 

“To be honest, I didn’t even know it was Fasching“

“After one year of Corona I didn’t even think about it anymore“

What bothered people more is the (again) prolonged lockdown that has been decided during those holidays, with some light opening in 2 weeks’ time. While there is a basic understanding of necessity, frustration and anger grow!

  • Want to be on the safe side!

In general, there is a widespread acceptance of the fact that this prolonged lockdown cannot be avoided. A continued lockdown is perceived as caring for people, a necessity to make sure that the ratio of infections will sink even more. Mutations are seen as the new threat.

“Overall, I find the prolongation a good thing, since it’s a measure to decrease new infections“

“Generally, I consider it too early for a light opening and would rather continue like this for another 2-3 months”

  • Growing anger

On the other side, there is growing anger because of how it is communicated, one small step at a time, and a lack of sufficient justification of those limitations. There are different limitations in different states, and different incident ratios are discussed. What is allowed in one place, is not allowed in another. What seemed like an achievement weeks ago is now no longer valid. Even friends may have different perceptions, and this leads to frustration and fights.

“Because of our social behavior, we, as human beings, need goals. If these goals are getting unattainable, it leads to frustration“

“The mood/spirits have hit rock bottom. Many start to doubt and are on one’s last leg. Financially as well as mentally”

”I find it completely wrong that politics is so unreliable. They are taking away any kind of hope from their citizens by decreasing the (goal of) incidences further”

“Because of differing opinions regarding Corona, there are increasing disagreements within the friends circle. With some it even leads as far as the friendship getting a cut, which is really sad“

  • Makes no sense

Many question the reasoning for the prolonged lockdown and try to make sense of the limitations they are all facing. There are so many situations that do not seem to make sense in everyday life:

“One has to wear masks in the streets, which doesn’t apply on a Sunday. For whatever reason“

“Why do kids at daycare or school be in one room with more than 30 people but are not allowed to meet with 2 friends in private. Same applies to employees“

„A friend of mine is quarantined. She lives in a house with 4 others. All 5 have signs of a cold but only one person was tested positive. So, one wonders whether this test is false positive or the other 4 tests are false negative?”

“Why do busses still go around Munich every 20 minutes at midnight, even though we have a curfew after 9pm? Wouldn’t it be better to just have an hourly emergency service?”

„The one-person rule. I am allowed to meet my new grandchild alone and then my husband has to travel there alone and then my son… it is a 300 km distance and we all live in one singel household. This does not make sense to me.“

After weeks of “light” lockdown, Germany went into a full lockdown again on December 16th. That day, IKM started a long-term online community to observe changes in behavior, compliance, emotions, and observations of consumers in their close environment.

Stay tuned – We will regularly post findings from this standing consumer community

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