Fasnacht in Basel

[Frances]

Fanacht being our special brand of Carneval around here... and guess who was in the middle of town when it all started at four o'clock this morning? And with all three children, too.

So despite that 50'000 post still looming tantalisingly ahead of us, I'll be otherwise occupied for the next three days. I'll post some pictures of my own personal costume, our piccolo group, and whatnot later on, but in the meantime here are a couple of links for anyone who is interested (in English )

Gallery :: G?ssle
Basler Fasnacht Online | What are the main events, and when?

Fasnacht is very very cool.

[egalecki]

Re: Fasnacht in Basel

Fat Tuesday (shrove Tuesday) was last week here. Ash Wednesday was the next day, of course. Do you all start a week later there? I don't know how the calendars work overseas. Easter is on April 12th this year, I believe.

Anyway, enjoy yourselves. I've given up all snack foods I didn't make myself and most processed food as well. Making my own crackers is looking better and better....

[Frances]

Re: Fasnacht in Basel

Its funny you should ask that, we were discussing the timing of Fasnacht around five o'clock on Monday morning...

The date is linked to Easter. A lot of places in Switzerland have some kind of (minor and far less important) version of Fasnacht before Ash Wednesday as a mixture of enjoying yourself before fasting for Lent and making lots of noise to scare away the Winter. Basel, being a Protestant Canton, probably decided to have Fasnacht during Lant just to provoke everybody else. As well as scaring away the Winter, it also has some overtones of being a reversal of social roles, as in medieval carneval traditions.

Oh hey, I found another good link. Who'd have thought I'd end up learning so much about it all (and at my age, too )

Carnival of Basel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Our family is part of a small group of pipers and in fact I've been trying to learn to play the Piccolo for the last two years - but no joy so far due to various other comitments (see, I started to build this oven in our garden....) But maybe next year?

[sarah h]

Re: Fasnacht in Basel

I had a look at the link and it looks like lots of fun!
My brain had a hiccup though at the word 'Vorfasnachtsveranstaltungen'. While the meaning was explained, I can't even begin to guess at the pronunciation - playing the piccolo is probably easier!!!

Sarah

[PizzaPolice]

Re: Fasnacht in Basel

At first blush, I so wanted to dismiss the whole procedure as a gloriously dressed up way to find yourself at a tavern. Upon closer inspection, I am and will remain very jealous. No way would that work in the good ol' US of A. You have a nice life, Frances. I see your penchant for twirly bits is an inherent trait shared by a great number of your countryman.

Thanks for sharing.

[Frances]

Re: Fasnacht in Basel

Thank you for taking the time to look at the links. Yes, Fasnacht is rather special and close to my heart.

So here, after much arm twisting (honestly, my Mother acts as if her photos were dragon's gold) I now have some personal pics to share. I'm the one in black - new costume and painted the mask myself, too. You buy them from special mask makers, either already painted or blank.

We're what you call a Schyssdr?ggziigli - a small non-official or wild group of pipers (yes, very wild haha). I notice that Wikipedia doesn't give an exact translation of that expression, so here it is: Schyssdr?gg of course means, not to put too fine a point on it, crap.

My Piccolo playing should fit right in...