So Shelly and I experienced a totally new holiday, which totally caught us off gaurd. Fasnacht, its a pre-Lent holiday. Seems to me its based on the classic idea of eating up the last of your winter lard supply before beginning the fast. By my observation, here is how it works: People dress up in ridiculous costumes, usually as groups, and assemble into marching bands, and march around town making a bunch of noise while we watch and drink beer. This is a German, Swiss, and Austrian specialty as I understand. Different towns/cities have their celebration at different times. We heard that there would be some kind of carnival in Lyss, and so we went to check it out, and it was a pretty crazy party. We then learned of the up and coming Fasnachts in Bern, Biel, and that the biggest one would be in Basel. So we were like, alright. lets go to Basel. (we also went to Bern, and Biel, but only briefly) I took off work last Wednesday. When I got of Tuesday we departed for Basel, arriving an hour later. We partied all night long, and caught the first train back at 5am. It was crazy.
Fasnacht in Basel begins on a Monday at 4am, when they turn all the power off in the city and everyone freaks out. Then in the pitch black, the crazy Fasnachters relight the streets with the elaborate lanterns that they prepared, which remain on display for the 3 night carnival. This one is dog themed. Snoopy, Santas Little Helper, Odie, Brian, Grommet, 101 Dalmations, Triumph the insult comic dog, and even Snoop Dogg are representin' on this bone shaped masterpiece.
I dont know about this one. I see Abe Lincoln, mickey mouse in a KKK suit, maybe some blood, hanging colored people and American colors all on a cross. Again I dont understand, I hope it is an anti-rasicm thing, cuz Im putting it on my blog.
the crowd has gathered around to catch this band. This is a zoomed in pic from far away. The one with the huge head would be the leader. So the bands in Basel are particuraly known for playing piccolos. All the other fasnachts have bands that do all the horns, and this band has a big horn arrangement. Further down youll find some videos of bands walking by, and youll hear the piccolos. I just wikipediad piccolo to check my spelling and the article mentions the 'Carnival of Basel' which we are talking about here.
band pic:
I CHOOSE BOTH!!
WWWEEEESSSTTT SSSIIIIIDDDEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!
band coming down the street. Oh yes, the bands are constant. Probably like 200 marching bands walking around the city, seriously.
Its getting late, the crowds are thinning, there is an inch of confetti on the ground, and my wifes hair is pink for some reason.
The Rhine river in Basel. We've come full circle and are now in Over the Rhine.
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1 comment:
Hmm. I don't know how I feel about Mickey Mouse with a knife.
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