Memories of Fasnacht 2007 Baden 1

From the 2007 Fasnacht parade in Baden...

20070218

Memories of Fasnacht 2007

It's that time of year again. Almost. This is a photo from a Fasnachts parade in 2007 in Olten if memory serves.

20070216

Guest band at the Umzug

The Guggenmusik bands play in other parades as well. Yesterday in Villigen we had the Vollgashöcklers from Hedingen, a town in the canton of Zürich.

Update 2 March 2009: Jessica over in the town of Urdorf in canton Zürich wrote about their Fasnacht parade on her blog. Bigger town, more variety. Check it out if this topic interests you. Link: Urdorf Fasnacht at Swisstory.

20090228

The Fasnachtsumzug

Fasnachtsumzug = Fasnacht parade. A photo from the small-scale parade that took place in Villigen this afternoon. This is our very own Guggenmusik (aka Guggemusig or Guggemusik -- it's difficult to keep track of dialect words) band. A description of this type of music can be found at this Wikipedia page if you understand German. A (low resolution) video clip of their performance at the Baden parade two years ago is here on my blog: 20070220 Sleeping baby at the Fasnachtsumzug.

20090228

I lost one through the gap

Fasnacht celebrations are taking place all over and our local big one is in Brugg on March 1st. Tomorrow there's a kids' parade in Villigen and I'll try to get a photo to post.

The motto of the Brugg one is Einisch Mee Dor d'Latte. My personal Swiss-German translator gave me some pointers and I used the image on the poster to put it together. "I lost one through the gap" or "One escaped me through the gap". If you have a better one (are you reading this, Local Insider or Peter/Worldman or Barbara or Wellingtonia? Any other Swiss reader I should know, did I miss you?) do speak up.

20090227

Fasnacht flag on Schloss Stein

Schloss Stein, a Habsburg building in Baden. For Fasnacht (Lent), the usual Swiss flag has been replaced with that of the Spanischbrödlizunft. More info at this old post: 20070218 Fasnacht takes over Baden (V).

I try to limit my usage of Photoshop trickery but I just gave in for this photo. It was even more dull than the one from last year (20080201 And so it starts), so I just selectively turned it to greyscale.

20090221

Elvis?!

Maybe it's just the upturned collar, but for some reason, this guy made me think of Elvis. And on this note, we end the 2008 Brugg Fasnacht posts.

20080210

Babies in a pram

20080210

Kid on a plane

20080210

The Villigen Sürpflers in Brugg

Did I mention how loud these parades are?

20080210

Brugg Fasnacht parade 2008

I thought I had missed the Brugg Fasnacht parade but I was wrong. Here is the Villigen group putting in an appearance this afternoon. More photos from the parade will show up over the course of the week.

20080210

Another look back at last year

A Fasnacht parade reinterpretation of the popular wood bikes -- such as the German LikeABike -- for children.

20070218

Last year's parade

I didn't make it to any of the parades this year, so here's a photo from last year in Baden.

20070218

Tuning up

A Guggenmusik player preparing to regale a few lucky Coop shoppers.

20080201

And so it starts

Fasnacht (Lenten) celebrations are starting up. The flag of the Baden Fasnacht guild is once again flying over the Habsburg ruin in Baden. Last year's post is here.

20080201

Fasnachtsumzug: yellow and orange and red (IX)

I saved what I think is my most eye-catching photo from the Baden parade for the last post on the topic. In addition to the bands and groups who were scheduled in advance, it seemed as though people could register on-site as independents. I think these two were in that category and unfortunately, I don't have any information on them.

20070218 modified

Fasnachtsumzug: fun for all (VIII)

Continuing with photos from the parade. These two women were going around with funny props and a Polaroid camera and were randomly picking people to photograph. We were standing near a couple of police officers and one of them was selected for a photo. It was somehow endearing, how game he was.

20070218 modified

Sleeping baby at the Fasnachtsumzug (VII)

Yesterday I mentioned seeing sleeping babies at the parade and upon looking through my photos I found a couple with examples such as this one. I imagine the child is used to the music because s/he has been hearing it at band practice since before birth.

If you look straight up from the baby, you'll notice stairs going up. That's one of the paths to the ruins of Schloss Stein I wrote about in Sunday's post.

The specialty of Swiss Fasnachts is Guggenmusik. There are now bands playing such music even in the UK! The repertoire usually draws from popular music (from the US and UK, mostly) though the renditions are deliberately off-key. This group here is the Bloser Clique Baden and their theme is Aprés Ski Club Baldegg.

I've uploaded the Villigen (Kumetbach Sürpfler) clip (26 seconds) and it can be viewed via the whatsit below. They're supposed to be dressed as the horrors from the North, Schrecken des Norden. We were positioned at a location just downstream of the judges' stand so each group ended up taking a short break near us, causing some discontinuity in their performances.

20070218 modified

Villigen drummer in Baden Fasnacht parade (VI)

I caught this member of the Villigen band as he was walking over to the gathering place before the Baden Fasnacht parade started yesterday afternoon. These processions feature a lot of percussion instruments and they are very loud. To my disbelief, I saw several sleeping babies, in the procession and amongst the spectators.

I have many photos and some mini-movies and this week I might share some of them if there's interest from readers (well, maybe even if there's not!).

20070218 modified

Fasnacht takes over Baden (V)

I'm learning about local Fasnacht traditions as I prepare posts for this blog. As with a lot of Swiss matters, the way the celebrations for Fasnacht are organized is determined locally, in each community. There are Fasnacht clubs that prepare for this annual event long in advance. In some (maybe all, but I don't know) localities, there's a symbolic take-over of power from the local government by the Fasnacht organizers during Fasnacht. What you see in this photo is a sign of that, as the Swiss flag that usually flies over Baden has been replaced by the banner of the Spanischbrödlizunft (The Spanish Bread Guild -- one of these clubs).

It was apparently at the Treaty of Baden (the treaty that ended the hostilities between France and the Holy Roman Empire) in 1714 that spanish bread was first brought to Switzerland. In 1847, Switzerland’s first train, called the Spanish Brötlibahn, ran between Baden and Zürich. Why was it called that? I'm a little foggy on the details.

The ruins are those of castle Stein (Schloss Stein), once a stronghold of the Habsburgs. It's a short hike to the top through parts of the old town and it's well worth the effort.

20070217 modified