These are colouful days indeed by the Bodensee - even if we are into our 4th day in a row with 100% cloud coverage. No, nary a sign nor a sight of a sun ray to be seen in the heavens. But these days are colourful none the less- because it is Fasnacht!
Fasnacht is a bit like Mardi
Gras in Rio -- only with clothes on! Most people here love Fasnacht; it is a time for fun and letting one´s hair (or toupee) down. - And maybe even a bit more `comes down`but as this is a family friendly blog we won´t go there! People are very serious about their fun at Fasnacht! The locals parade around in the
streets wearing lovely colorful costumes and playing music; many of the participants wear beautifully carved but often grotesque masks. Most of the participants belong to particular vereins or groups. The costumes
and masks have stories about which often no one knows the
origin. Some of the stories or themes are certainly from the middle
ages, but I suspect some go back to before Christianity. I am
including a connection to a website of photos from my first Fasnacht here.
The local verein celebrated its 100th anniversary that year, so it was joined by
many other groups from near and far as they say.
You
will see there are 100`s perhaps thousands of participants, and very
few viewers, that is because in every village and town they all have
their own parade. Many people from the villages are involved so there
is not too many left to look on!
The
participants with the masks, are instructed to approach children meekly
and stretch a hand out with a sweet for the child, who may or may not
take
the sweet. I understand people who don´t approach children gently will be taken to task or even put out of the verein. What is wonderful is that children, even when quite young, become used to different or ugly or other or what ever - and noise!
The
down side is people can be insistent with adults that they partake of
alcoholic beverages, but in an imperfect world we can deal with this not
ideal situation.
Although I don´t
have a great understanding of Fasnacht, or the psyche behind it, I
do attend a lot of the parades and some of the Fasnacht Balls. - I so
enjoy seeing kids, babies, teenagers, seniors and all in between having
fun together. Romeo H is, for the most part not a great Fasnacht fan.
There is indeed a solid minority who leave town altogether for Fasnacht,
or
just stay home and hibernate during Fasnacht.
Today,
Ash Wednesday, is the last day of Fasnacht, at least in this area, in
more Protestant Switzerland, some areas start their Fasnacht into the
first days of Lent. But now the hard working Germans will put away their
Fasnacht masks and costumes and get back to the serious business of
working hard again. Until Fasnact next year.
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