Fasnacht 2014!

The festivities have started; specifically they started at 4am on Monday morning! Fasnacht is the Basel Carnival, held every year starting the Monday after Ash Wednesday. Most Swiss cities and towns have some sort of Carnival celebration, but Basel's is probably the most well known in the country. I've been really excited to see what all the hype was about, so here's a bit about what we've experienced so far.

Street before the lights go out at 4am

Fasnacht lasts exactly 72 hours- from 4am Monday morning until 4am Thursday morning. This year's theme is "Keep Clean," with a badge to wear that points to rubbish on the streets, but also to unclean activities, sharp practices and even abuse of power. Most lanterns, floats and costumes this year are some sort of play on local, national or world politics, with many of them poking fun at the US and EU as well.

Costumed participants

Morganstreich means "morning prank" and is when all of the participating groups go to their specified spots throughout the old town and start playing and marching at 4am on the dot. The city electric company turns off all the lights in the city at 4am as well, so all you can see are the lanterns and lit up floats being presented. Here's what it sounds like when everything starts:

Monday was a holiday in Basel, so BK had the day off. In the afternoon the first processionals started. The same groups from the morning follow a large ring around the old city, crossing a couple of the bridges. It seems like complete chaos, but the participants seem to know what they are doing and where they are supposed to go. You can't picture a parade in the US, because it's really nothing like that.

Poking fun at the Catholic Church and Swiss Guard

Dressed up as the NSA

The fun continued today, and you can pretty much constantly hear the tweet of piccolos and beat of drums throughout the city. We went to the lantern display tonight and tomorrow will probably go see another processional. The party doesn't stop until 4am Thursday morning!