Basler Fasnacht: A Warm Welcome to Spring

After relocating to Switzerland, the first local festival, I’m waiting eagerly to celebrate is Basler Fasnacht, which is one of the top 50 festivals celebrated in Europe. This eagerness got triggered even before stepping into Switzerland, when I saw the photos of last year’s Fasnacht, taken by my husband.

Basler Fasnacht is on March 2, 2009. Every year, it comes on the Monday after Ash Wednesday. This festival starts exactly on Monday morning 4am and lasts exactly for 72 hours and there by ends on Thursday morning 4am. Unlike the carnival celebrations of other cities in Switzerland, Basel celebrates it in a unique way, giving a clear picture of separation between participants and viewers. Though there are various reasons associated with this festival, like it originated from a row of jousting tournament between a group of knights and citizens of Basel, the popular among them is, “Good bye to cold winter and Welcome to bright summer”.

On Monday, early morning 4am, all lights will go off in old Basel town, marking the start of Basler Fasnacht, the carnival of Basel. The lanterns of the Cliques will remain as the only source of light. There are two types of lanterns used in the carnival. One is head-mounted (Kopflaterne) type, which is placed in the head of the participants. The other is parade lanterns (Zugslaterne), which are wheel-mounted, carried by two or more people.

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The lanterns will have lots of interesting themes painted on it. The names of the artists who paint the lantern is never revealed out by the cliques.With the march command “Morgestraich, vorwärts marsch!”, which means “Morgesraich, forward march”, the entire Cliques will march, playing their instruments. Sure going to be a feast to eyes, watching this lantern exhibition and carnival floats.  People wearing different masks, which differs from funny to horror will catch the eyes for a laugh or shock. Shops will remain open for the whole 3 days, selling the carnival special items like flour soup, a feast to taste too.

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The next highlight is Gugge Music on Tuesday evening, which happens around the areas called Claraplatz, Marktplatz and Barfüsserplatz. The Gugge music groups play music on old and dented, brass instruments. This group will march to the centre of the city and play music of some five songs there and again march to another location. Their main stops will be before cafes and restaurants to attract more guests.

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On Tuesday, apart from this music group, children too will have costumes and masks of Fasnacht celebrations and keep roaming around the city with their families. Apart from Waggis, the traditional dress of Fasnacht, Cowboy costumes are common for boys and Princess costumes are more used by girls in this festival.

Image via Wikipedia

The procession ends in the evening in a place called Münsterplatz in Basel.  All the works of art which took part in the pride march will put on place once again with a lantern exhibition. Later all are put on display in the town square in front of Basel’s cathedral. After that, the lanterns are extinguished for good. The Cliques and the Gugge will keep their good work up to the climax when the clocks strike 4am on the Thursday morning. At this point everything stops, as the Fasnächtler take their masks off and collapse in the nearest restaurant, biding adieu to Fasnacht.

The city gets into the mood of Fasnacht, even a month before it. We have just two more days to go for this colorful festival, with lights and music. Have a wonderful day.