Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images
At 11:11 a.m. on Thursday, women in Germany’s Rhineland region stormed their local governments, assuming power from their male counterparts and, in at least one case, seizing the key to the city, Salon reports. Sadly, it was purely symbolic. The matriarchal takeover is an annual Weiberfastnacht tradition, the pre–Mardi Gras Women’s Carnival Day. Other festivities include dressing up in colorful dirndls as well as cutting men’s ties off below the knot and then kissing them.
