After checking out the start of everything Monday morning at 4am, Rob, Chris and I stumbled home to get some shut eye. None of us were feeling all that great on Monday thanks to an exhausting weekend, little sleep and some bad kepabs the night before. But when the first band (Gugge) marched down the street in front of our window on Monday around noon, I was ready to go out and check out the action. This time, the band was full - with lots of horns and bells - not just piccolo and drum - they sounded great.
Rob and I went down to check out the festivities around 4pm. The parade started at 1:30 but things were still going strong around 4pm. I had already watched footage on TV so I knew to expected loads of confetti being strewn from the floats as well as candy, flowers and small toys. It was so neat to witness this parade. Everything was so unique and interesting. Each group had a theme for their costumes and their large painted lantern - each a comment on some political happening from the past year. I saw many floats/groups featuring penguins (apperantly there was a failed attempt at a penguin house at Basel's zoo this year), commentary on global warming, local earthquakes, school uniforms, non smoking proposals and disputes between the residents of Basel Stadt (City) and Basel Land (county). Each Gugge group had made their own costumes and oversized distorted masks. Each person in the group had the same mask except for the leader whose mask often extended several feet above his body with an enormous head 2 to 3 times the size of the others. I loved seeing the parade on Monday. It was so different from any parade I had ever seen but is what I imagine the Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans to be like.
Like New Orleans Mardi Gras, the Basler Fasnacht celebration included a children's parade which was on Tuesday. This was definitely the best of the three parades for me. Imagine hundreds of small children in costume - anything from cute animals to miniature versions of their parents groups costumes - carting around on floats and standing in groups to watch the other children go by. The costumes were hilarious to begin with, but the best part was seeing the children hurtle confetti from the floats. Some would hold a flower or a toy in one hand to give to someone but not let go until releasing confetti at the recipient with all their might from their other hand. It was very very funny. Chris and I went to this one - Rob was working - and we got showered almost immediately upon arriving in the parade ("cortege") area. Little children found it immensely funny to not just throw confetti at us but try to put it inside our coats, in our hair, etc...
In one of my first posts on this blog, I mentioned how the Swiss do not celebrate Halloween. Well now I know why. Fasnacht, and in particular the children's cortege, is like Halloween plus fourth of July all rolled into one for the local children. They come out in masquerade and go home with bags stuffed full of goodies.
Wednesday was the final day and the last parade. Rob, Chris and I went down to the main bridge in Basel around 3pm to check things out. Again the parade was in full swing with thousands of spectators watching. We stayed on the bridge for a while and then wandered into the center of the city. On this day, the parade went on for hours. Things were finally dying down around 6pm but again with small groups continuing to parade through the city. I will never forget this day. Aside from the parade, the weather was beautiful - sunny but with a few spots of rain which created beautiful rainbows that only seemed appropriate for this colorful event. Rob, Chris and I had a great time watching everything go by and diving for fruit and candies here and there. We did end up with a bag of loot - my favorite items - the flowers (carnations and a big bouquet of mimosa) and a grapefruit that one of the Gugge group members gave to us because he had to continue marching and he had no where to put it.
The carnival here is one of a kind. The Basler Fasnacht is the biggest in Switzerland. People came from all over to witness it and I was so glad to be a part of it. I had heard so much about this event and could not imagine a 3 day party in which everyone "let loose" (as much as they do here) and just enjoyed the party. I was in shock that Basel would allow the city to get so dirty - each day there was about 3 inches of confetti in each of the major streets. But each morning, it was cleaned up to make space for the next day's party.
So now carnival has come and gone and we are able to move home shortly, knowing that we have experienced what is the highlight of the year for most residents here in Basel.
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