Fasnacht !!

Ever since I arrived here in Switzerland, people have been telling me of the famous 3 days in Basel called "Fasnacht." aka, Carnival.

It's basically a big party in the streets for 3 days starting Monday morning at 4 a.m. and continued until the early hours of Thursday morning. However, in Liestal which is a neighboring town to Basel the traditional "kick-off" happened which I was really fortunate to have a good place to watch it from. Normally people stand on the tiny, narrow street while watching this parade of fire in Liestal but Rotary had a place in an apartment so I could enjoy it without the burning heat from the torches and huge wagons of fire. It was incredible !!!

After the fire evening in Liestal, I pushed my way through an extremely massive crowd of people and made my way to the train station. To go sleep? No way. I went to a concert with a group of Swiss friends that I have become really close with, these people here are awesome!! Since "Morgen Strike" happens in Basel at 4 a.m, lots of people stay up the whole night until that magical time! So I went to a concert and once it was time for Morgen Strike we left and found a good place to sit and enjoy it together.

Then it was time to go sleep, rest up and then enjoy the next few days normally. Fasnacht is basically instrumental bands everywhere playing their own songs in a parade, in which they choose their own way so there is just basically beautiful music everywhere for a full 3 days. Everyone participating in the bands or cliques, wear a costume with a mask. On Monday and Wednesday the masks and costumes match but Tuesday is more for fun and for the kids, so it's not so serious on Tuesday.  There are also parade wagons full of other stuff, like the famous "Waggi's." These are the Fasnacht bullies and go around throwing and stuffing you with confetti, then kindly giving you candy or a rose afterwards.

The atmosphere during these 3 days is unexplainable, the people are so happy and the streets are completely full with people, candy, and LOTS of confetti.  Here are some pictures to explain it !!

On Tuesday, I was invited by a member of Rotary to walk with him, his family and the band they are apart of. Out of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Tuesday is the day for kids and also costumes the don't have to match. I walked at the front of the band with a few others to help clear the path of people watching it, here is me in the costume they lent me, I'm on the left!

I encourage everyone to go to Switzerland for the traditional Fasnacht that happens once a year, the feeling and exciting you get is indescribable.