Carnival in Basel, Switzerland!

Toujours en retard...
[always late]
 
Again, a week late. But I think these pictures will be worth the wait. Last Monday morning I left bright and early for Basel, Switzerland to go to the Carnival celebration there (I was invited by one of the families I tutor). I have to say, it was probably one of the most surprising and unique experiences I have had so far during this adventure abroad. Fasnacht, the Swiss-German name for this annual three-day festival, is the highlight of the year in Basel. There are lots of different things to see over the three days, but the main event is the non-stop parade, or Cortège, which begins at 4am on Monday morning with the Morgestraich and ends at 4am on Thursday morning.

If you've done your math correctly, you know that this Carnival celebration began on the Monday after Ash Wednesday. Why do they celebrate Carnival when it's technically already Lent? Before the Protestant Reformation, the Basel Carnival took place before Ash Wednesday like everywhere else. But once the city officially separated from the Catholic Church, the city officials wanted to make sure their Carnival tradition was distinct from the Catholic ones, so they moved it one week later. Of course all of this isn't really a big deal today since the festivities are no longer connected with the church at all, but I was curious about the timing, so I thought you might be too.

Anyway, the parades were really cool, sort of like New Orleans Mardi Gras meets Halloween meets 4th of July parade. The locals call it die drey scheenschte Dääg (the three most beautiful days). I arrived in Basel around 11:30am, checked into my hotel, and then headed down to the city center to explore. The parade takes a short break between the late morning and 1:30pm on Monday (for the people who were up at 4am), and although there was a definite bustle, the streets were practically empty compared to the crowds which would come later. You can see the difference in these two photos, both of the Rathaus (townhall) and then Marketsplatz (market square) in front of it.

Taken around noon:

Taken around 4:30pm:

There are four major groups who participate in the parades: cliques, gugge (marching bands), floats, and schyssdräggziigli.

Cliques can vary in size, but have at a minimum a vortrab (vanguard), pfeifer (piccolo players), a tambourmajor (drum master), and tambouren (drum players). Each clique picks a theme and usually all of the members are dressed in the same or similar costumes. The themes varied from the bizarre to completely ridiculous. Many were variations on clowns, but I saw a snowman-themed clique, a Russian doll-themed clique, an Occupy Sesame Street-themed clique and multiple Smurf-themed cliques. Most people join one clique as an adolescent or young adult and remain a part of that group for the rest of their life. It's also common for children to join the same clique as their parents, but there's no rule requiring people to stay in the same clique or join a particular one. Occasionally when a clique wore masks exposing the back of their heads, I could see quite a few gray-haired members.

Each clique also decorates its own "lantern." During the day they look more like giant rectangular canvases, but at the beginning of the Morgestraich they are all illuminated at once for the start of the parade. The city turns off all of the lights for the Morgestraich and apparently it's a fairly magical moment when all of the lanters light up at once. The lanterns are part of the clique's theme, and they can be light-hearted or deeply political.

(Harry Potter-themed clique... the house elves are pulling the lantern and there were piccolo and drum players representing each of the four houses)

The gugge, or brass bands, also dress up, and their costumes can be equally ridiculous.

The floats were probably my favorite part of the parade. On the large trailers (wagge) are Waggis, an affectionate spoof on the Alsatian farmers who used to bring their produce to market in Basel. The Waggis throw down candy, oranges, flowers, little toys, and random produce (carrots and cabbage were the most common, but I saw someone almost get beaned with a leek). The Waggis also throw confetti on the bystanders. They were often devious, and would tempt bystanders with a flower or handful of candy and then surprise them with a fistful of confetti. These Waggis were practically malicious, and I got a few photos of them stuffing confetti down people's hoods:

And these Waggis had a bathtub full of confetti in which they would dunk innocent bystanders...

More Waggis:

Part of what made the parade so interesting was the bizarre mix of innocent silliness and political commentary, youthful playfulness and vaguely inappropriate revelry. For instance, I saw a couple of floats with bars built into the bar (vodka on tap?) and some of them had penis-shaped pacifiers among their racks of toys to hand out. But in general, it was more of a Disney parade than New Orleans Mardi Gras bacchanal. I found the contrasts really interesting though. Also notable: the parade Tuesday afternoon was the kids' parade, and there were many more child participants and young bystanders during this parade (almost all of the above pictures are from the parade on Monay).

Last but not least, schyssdräggziigli. These are non-clique small groups or individuals who wander around playing music with piccolos or drums or both. They are in costume too:

So, I bet you're wondering, are there any foods associated with this colorful, musical festival? It turns out yes, but don't get too excited yet. The three foods of Fasnacht are Mehlsuppe (flour soup), Zwiebelwähe (onion tart) and Fastenwähe, a caraway-seed pretzel meant to be eaten with beer. Of the three, I tried mehlsuppe and if you are ever offered any, I suggest you politely refuse. This is what it looks like:

Basically it's flour, a little bit of butter, a little bit of onion, and water. Yuck. Not to knock Fasnacht, which as you can tell was pretty fantastic, but they should really work on their culinary specialties... What about beignets? The French are all about them during Carnival, and they're much tastier!!

So I spent pretty much all of Monday watching the parade with the family who invited me, and then had dinner with the mom and her friend who lives in Basel. On Tuesday morning I went to an exhibit of Pierre Bonnard's work at the Fondation Beyeler, a museum just outside of the city. Pierre Bonnard was a French painter who was part of the group called the Nabis at the end of the 19th century/early 20th century.

This painting of his, entitled Place Clichy, was done in the early 20th century. Normally it is displayed at the art museum in Besançon, but it was part of the exhibit in Basel. I think it's really neat not just because I like the painting itself, but because the perspective is from the inside of a café located at Place Clichy in Paris, a café called Café Wepler where my family and I ate while we were in Paris over Christmas.

Then in the afternoon I watched more of the parade and just wandered around Basel. It was really cool how with the constant parade and the music-filled air, I felt entertained just sitting on a bench beside the Rhine river, like this one (in the background is the Münster or main church of the city).

The big lesson I learned from this experience was to pay more attention to festivals and local celebrations when planning trips. Don't get me wrong, Basel is a cool city (famous for its art scene), but outside of this really unique and amazing festival, it would probably fit into the mold of most European cities of a similar size... lots of churches, old city walls and towers, museums, etc. This festival gave it a unique character and a magical atmosphere... I would certainly consider going back just to see it all again!