Fasnacht and Family!
- Shania Rohr
- Mar 23, 2019
- 2 min read
A few weeks ago I went to Switzerland to visit my family and experience a true Fasnacht. It was great to see my family as I haven't seen them in a while. Fasnacht was an experience. It is a massive carnival that happens across the country typically right before Lent begins, traditionally being a final celebration before beginning fasting. This isn't so much the reason for it anymore, now it's just a good time with lots of music and food and confetti....yes confetti. On my first day there I joined my Uncle Silvio and cousin Siel for the start of Fasnacht in Lucerne. The way it starts is on Thursday and there is what is called the "Big Bang" at 5a.m. which is where (at least the explanation I got) the Fasnacht family of Lucerne arrives by boat on Lake Lucerne to bring the festival to the city.
This tradition apparently goes back to the middle ages. It was definitely cool to witness. As soon as the firework goes off and the festival begins and the many music groups around the city begin playing and will continue until Tuesday or Ash Wednesday. After we witnessed the bang we watched the confetti shower - which literally looks like snow - and then continued on our way to a bakery for breakfast.
It was so interesting to walk around the city because there is this rule in Lucerne where if your group is participating you must wear a mask! Being honest I had a hard time deciding if it was cool or creepy, I think I finally settled on cool.
My friend from Humber, Nicole, who is currently studying in the Netherlands also joined me in Switzerland and with her we went around to some castles and went to Lucerne again on Saturday where Fasnacht was still in full swing.
Sunday was the parade in Wurenlingen which was really fun, from the perspective of Canadian parades this parade was on a different level there was a ton of confetti, so much crowd participation and finally what Nicole and I found to be the most interesting was that each float was passing out drinks/shots to the crowd! The people go all out - check out some of the pictures.
On Monday before we said goodbye to my family and got on our separate planes back to our current countries Nicole and I went to Zurich for the morning and walked around for a while, in all the times I've gone to Switzerland I don't remember ever just doing that. The whole trip was a bunch of firsts for me which isn't normal for that country. I had a great little visit there and can't wait to go back and spend more time with my family in a few months.
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