You've heard of Mardi Gras and Brazilian Carnivale but I'm sure you've never heard of Fasnacht. But they're all the same idea. Leading up to Lent, Catholics plan a week of crazy partying where they get all of their godless urges taken care of before Ash Wednesday. A week of food, booze and fun culminate with Fat/Shrove Tuesday. And the Swiss have their own bizarre version as well.
Switzerland is an interesting country. There is very little power for a national government. Most of the power is based within the canton. A canton is roughly equivalent to a state in the US. So, most of the rules a Swiss person would follow are dictated by the canton, rather than the Swiss government.
Another interesting facet of Switzerland is that its citizens are mostly conservative and fairly religious. Part of the monthly taxes coming out of your salary each month go to your religion's churches. Each canton has its own identity and some cantons are Protestant and some are Catholic. I live in a Catholic canton which means that we get Catholic holidays off and we have Fasnacht which is the Swiss name for Mardi Gras/Carnivale. Luzern has one of the more well-known Fasnachts in the country.
I'll say it again - the Swiss are very conservative people. The culture is extremely rules oriented and propriety is extremely important. They have rules about what time you can do your laundry, neighbors frequently complain about noise at any level, and even trash bags must be uniform in color. 360 days of the year, the Swiss are extremely controlled, proper and quiet people.
But then for 5 days chaos rules in Switzerland and it's called Fasnacht. It starts like this:
Thursday at 5am cannons boom in a main square in Old Town announcing that the festivities have begun. Citizens start pulling on the costumes they have been painstakingly planning and creating for the past year (no exaggeration). A remarkable proportion of the population takes to the streets as part of one of a hunded marching bands dressed in all sorts of fantastical costumes. You have never seen so many goblins, devils, ogres and garden gnomes in your life.
And then - they march. ALL night long the air is filled with the sound of marching band music. They march, and march and march - almost the entire 5 days/nights.
Confetti clogs the cracks in the cobblestone streets. Eichoff beer cans litter the plazas and pretzels and sausages are sold by the thousands. Every street in Old Town is packed so tightly at times you almost get lifted off your feet.
Not everyone is a gnome. You can see people dressed as fairies, animals, convicts - pretty much everything you can imagine. A few times I swear I've seen some 70s porn stars reliving their days of glory:
But the Swiss don't entirely forget who they are during Fasnacht. At about 8am each morning, cleaning crews pour into the streets cleaning up trash and excess confetti. They use branch brooms to sweep around the feet of the drunk teens passed out on the park benches. They get it all back to "normal" - clean and orderly - so that that evening everyone has a fresh canvas upon which to toss more confetti and beer cans.
My first Fasnacht I came home from work to find a bandstand attached to my house and people setting up to party hard all night long:
Yep, that yellow house is mine. Those shuttered windows are my BEDROOM. Needless to say I had many many late night hours in which to get to know the entire repertoire of that particular marching band.
How do I plan to celebrate this year's Fasnacht? In my quiet cozy house in Melrose, Massachusetts, U.S, of A. You might say I'm the Scrooge of Fasnacht. But don't judge until you've spent Fasnacht trying to sleep in your Old Town apartment.
Fasnacht is one of the coolest things to experience in Switzerland. As long as you don't live in Old Town Luzern.
No comments:
Post a Comment