Fasnacht, Year Two

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.

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.

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.

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.