Swiss Fasnacht: A Whimsical Twist on Karneval

You may have heard of the Rio de Janeiro Carnival, New Orleans’ Mardi Gras, or Karneval here in West Germany. They are all fantastic city wide parties with music, costumes, and parades. However, Fasnacht is a unique celebration in that same genre exclusive to Switzerland, Austria, and a few parts of Germany.

Me and a group of friends visited the Swiss city of Lucerne this weekend and got to experience Fasnacht firsthand. On Friday when we arrived, there were only a few small assemblies of people listening to the brass bands. We saw the beautiful city and even picked up a deck of traditional Swiss playing cards. They have 36 beautifully decorated cards and the suits are acorns, shields, bells, and flowers. We tried to learn games to play with our unique deck however they all proved to be too complex for us. Instead, we opted for a simpler Bavarian game called “Schafkopf,” which used the same deck and was loads of fun.

On Saturday, we went for a relaxing hike outside of the city, but when we got back, Lucerne was much less serene. We fought through crowds of costumed partygoers and weaved in and out of marching bands in order to bring dinner back to our Airbnb. Our whole group watched in awe from the windows as the streets swayed with the waltzes of the crowds below. We kept them open to let the music in, grounding us all to the celebration. After dinner, we could not wait any longer. Me and my friend Ian descended to the streets in costume to get a closer look at the parade floats that were parked. Seeing them up close was mystifying. Plus the costumes had even more effort than we first thought. Almost everyone had complicated outfits, mostly in pairs or groups. It beat any Halloween party in the States. The real winners were the bands though. Now that it was nighttime, they all donned their large custom headgear. Goblins, Orcs, Ghosts, and other mythical creatures played the eerie tunes of Fasnacht and led mobs of people around the city.

Infrastructure played an interesting role in Fasnacht too. The streets were cleared and big trash containers were placed all around the city to collect as much of the party’s waste as possible. However, the ground was still very messy and there is no doubt that cleaning crews had to make their way through to tidy things up again. Despite this, we had no issues getting to our train the next day, and the busses were getting around just fine. Overall, it was really cool to see how the infrastructure system adapted to the Fasnacht celebrations.

With the tight cobblestone streets, strange card games, and extravagant costumes, back dropped by the mighty alps, the only word I could use to describe this city is whimsical.

Drew A.

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