Why do people say 'alaaf!' at carnival?

Have you ever celebrated carnival in the Netherlands? Chances are you’ll hear people shouting alaaf! The call has many functions: to greet each other, to toast or just to make some noise. It’s not a Dutch word, so where does it come from?

German roots

Onze Taal, a Dutch magazine for language enthusiasts, says alaaf was first used in Maastricht before gaining fame in the rest of the country. Speakers of the Maastricht dialect borrowed the term from German.

Yet the true origins of alaaf are a bit more mysterious. It may be related to the German phrase “all ab”, meaning “everything to one side” or “everything out of the way”.

The magic carnival number

Some people say alaaf is linked to the number eleven, which plays a special role at carnival. But that explanation was probably invented after people started using the word.

Answered by Rik Peters