Fastnet 2014

Here it is called "Fastnet" or Fasching. It is a major time of celebration here, similar to Carnival in the north and Mardi Gras in New Orleans. In some ways it is like Halloween in that they dress up in costumes, kids and adults alike. It is amazing how the local people here are so particular about how they look and how proud and proper they are and during this time how crazy they look. They have lots of parties and parades. Each little community has a particular costume style, with very specific masks and chants.

This corresponds with the coming of Lent, or the time of fasting before Easter. It is also intended to drive out evil spirits and fools before this sacred time. There are a lot of old hags or witches. Most communities have special clubs, called Narrenzunft, or Fools guilds or clubs, complete with the costumes mentioned and bands. Each one has a particular chant where they yell a phrase in the local dialect and your are supposed to respond with a particular answer. Last year, I thought it was just a particular nonsense phrase, but this year discovered that each group has a special phrase pair. It was published in a handout. They have a huge parade each year. Here in Ravensburg, it lasted over 3 hours. We only made it through the first hour and a half.

This year it was not quite a cold as last year, though it was still fairly chilly.

Here are some pictures. I have some in the blog entry I made a year ago as well.

This is a week or so before Fastnet, in a neighboring town. It shows the town preparations for Fastnet. They always have multicolored small flags across the roads.

Here is a local band practicing a few days before the parade. There are a lot of these in the few days prior to the main parade on Rosenmontag (Mar. 3, this year)

The band went right into a local bank and out the other side.

Some of the "fools" went into a store while we were standing there.

This is the beginning of the parade, on Monday this week. Notice the interesting horns they play. The horns have several bells.

This costume is interesting. See the cucumber shaped object that is part of the mask (on the nose), and the little Mehlsack towers on the toes of the feet.

The children are definitely a part of it as well.

Sometimes, instead of elaborate masks, they just paint their faces.

Here is the sign of the Fools guild in Reute. On the sign are some of their masks and symbols as well as their chant:  "Wa muinet 'r" and the appropriate response: "Ha Wellawaeg." I have no idea what it means.

Notice a couple of the masks shown on the sign in the above picture.

Another group with witches masks

Here is a group that uses Mickey Mouse as their scary masks and costumes.

More scary people. They kidnap people along the parade route and put the in the cage. It is usually children that they capture.

In addition to the capturing of people (they are released soon afterwards), they also throw handfuls of small paper bits on people and scatter it all over. One group scattered hay.

It is quite a spectacle.