A year ago Your Correspondent wrote
here in detail about her first encounter with Fasnacht, Swiss-German
pre-Lenten celebrations that are similar to, but different in an utterly Swiss
way, Mardi Gras.* Last year we missed the principal local celebrations because
we were out of town, so this year was an opportunity to share further a typical
small-town experience. The giant
parades of larger Swiss cities, especially Luzern and Basel, are well known,
but to me one of the more interesting things is that in the Catholic cantons
even very small towns have full schedules of activities during the week leading
up to Ash Wednesday. And judging from
our observations, it seems that a large proportion of each community takes part
in some way.
At the center of Fasnacht in large cities and small towns
alike are Guggemusigen, amateur marching
bands that provide a steady stream of background music for the festivities. Baar has six groups, sporting names such as
“Belcantos,” “Crescendos,” and “Minifodrios.”
Like marching bands everywhere, their instrumentation leans heavily
toward brass and percussion. They
perform in costume, though I’m not able to say whether the themes change from
year to year, like the famous Mummers in Philadelphia. (In fact, I suspect that there is a connection
between the two, given the strength of Philadelphia’s German cultural
roots.) The groups also host big “Balls”
during the Fasnacht season. I hazard a
guess that membership in one of the bands is a major part of social life in
Baar – and judging from the times when small groups of players wandered through
town in the middle of the night, blaring on horns or banging on drums, it is
likely that they party non-stop from Thursday until early on Ash Wednesday
morning.
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| Local Baar Brewery Celebrates 150th This Year |
In Baar, the main public events are a large parade on Sunday
afternoon and a children’s parade on Monday afternoon. The former was most impressive for a small
town – there were lots of floats, many of which commented on current events
such as the construction of a mammoth Big Dig-type railroad tunnel through
Zürich and the Euro financial crisis.
The streets of downtown Baar were lined with spectators, most of whom
were in costume, and everyone seemed to come armed with confetti to throw at
each other or to dump on unsuspecting bystanders like The Spouse who weren’t
wearing this year’s Plakette.
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| Watching the Parade over Dorfstrasse |
As the parade literally surrounded our apartment building – running down Bahnhofstrasse on one side, then turning left onto Kreuzplatz for a block and then left again onto Dorfstrasse and passing us on the other side – we were able to catch parts of it twice.
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| Schoolchildren marching as "von Gochlis" |
The following day was technically a normal business day, so I forgot about the children’s parade until I returned from running some errands in the car to find the streets blocked off again. It was most impressive and seemed to involve all schoolchildren marching in costumed ranks and even toddlers in playgroups. They were accompanied by the usual bands and some of the same floats that had appeared in Sunday’s parade.
On Tuesday night festivities concluded with a torchlight
parade through the same streets, ending at the Rathausplatz where a giant
papier-maché Räbechüng, (beet head) was burned in effigy to mark the end of the
year’s festivities.
Although we did not participate in all the festivities we
enjoyed the energy they generated in the community through the bland days of
winter. Despite their reputation for
strict orderliness, we have learned that the Swiss take great pleasure in the
many special occasions in their calendar.
*To be accurate, there are many similarities between Swiss
Fasnacht celebrations and Fastnacht customs in Catholic sections of Germany,
such as Swabia.
