Search: Advanced | Preference
Traveling Boy means the travel adventures of the Traveiling Boitanos
Travel adventures of Eric Anderson Boitano
Travel adventures of John Clayton
Travel adventures of Deb Roskamp
Travel adventures of Fyllis Hockman
Travel adventures of Brom Wikstrom
Travel adventures of Jim Friend
Travel adventures of Timothy Mattox
Travel adventures of Corinna Lothar
Travel adventures of Roger Fallihee
Travel adventures of Tamara Lelie
Travel adventures of Beverly Cohn
Travel adventures of Raoul Pascual
Travel adventures of Ringo Boitano
Travel adventures of Herb Chase
Travel adventures of Terry Cassel
Travel adventures of Dette Pascual
Travel adventures of Gary Singh
Travel adventures of John Blanchette
Travel adventures of Tom Weber
Travel adventures of James Thomas
Travel adventures of Richard Carroll
Travel adventures of Richard Frisbie
Travel adventures of Masada Siegel
Travel adventures of Greg Aragon
Travel adventures of Skip Kaltenheuser
Travel adventures of Ruth J. Katz
Travel adventures of Traveling Boy's guest contributors

Colorado ad


About Skip   write me    Feeds provide updated website content        

Guest: Basel's Fasnacht Festival
Berlusconi Rides Again:
Mockery and Music Behind The Masks of Basel

By Skip Kaltenheuser

Damn everything but the circus!
…damn everything that is grim, dull,
motionless, unrisking, inward turning,
damn everything that won't get into the
circle, that won't enjoy, that won't throw
its heart into the tension, surprise, fear
and delight of the circus, the round
world, the full existence…
- E.E. Cummings

sh Wednesday has come and gone, quieting the mad carnival world that embraced its generous clean slate.

Not in Basel. It's 3am the Monday after. By decree, the Swiss city is as black as if an air raid siren sounded. Outlines of people bundled up against the chill tumble along the tram lines leading to the city center, like snow melt in the Alps, trickles gradually forming torrents that raise the Rhine. Small voices of children in stunned disbelief complain of being kidnapped from their dreams. Schnapps-lubricated laughter bubbles from adults, drawing ears here and there trying to get a sense of surroundings that still elude the eyes. Reaching Marktplatz, the giant town square, I locate a balcony off a building tolerant to party crashers.

A crisis of confidence as I sip restorative infusions of wine and Mehlsuppe, a flour soup, and munch on Zwiebelwahe and Kasewahe – onion and cheese tarts. The cuisine warms me but the lack of spice fills me with skepticism about Fasnacht – carnival – in this buttoned-down Swiss town bordering both France and Germany. Hell, the samba could be my partner in a warmer clime.

Faith in self is restored. By 4am, musical notes start cutting through the dark as distant pipers herald the Morgestraich procession. Eight thousand-strong, playing fifes – piccolo cousins – nothing more hopeful than a relative infinity of fifes. And drummers, thousands more, building backbone. The tune hails from the American revolution. I'm reminded of Plato's warning that the flute is an instrument threatening to rulers. A long serpent of fire crawls closer, evolving into segments, then huge lanterns, floating and bobbing into the square. They reveal hundreds of thousands who risk the hour of the wolf to cheer the colorful gas-lit images and reset their winter rhythms. Ah, me of little faith, not to trust a town refining this act since the 1300's.

The pipers and drummers take two victory laps around the square and start breaking off, scattering through narrow, winding cobblestone streets. Following a group, I’m quickly lost in the still dark streets. I linger in a small bakery's warm light. A plump, smiling woman loads Fasnachtsküchli, sugar rice thin round cakes, and Fastenwähe, caraway seed pretzels, in the display window beneath a grinning, grotesque mask.

A cacophony ensues as troupes of flautists confront each other at a three-way corner. One group, half-a-dozen women, sports harlequin uniforms with Napoleon hats. Another brings a dozen masked male and female "nudists" in flesh colored foam padding exaggerating sexuality of the opposite sex, the ultimate cross-dressing. The third gang of masked woodwinds are a reminder of carnivals past, like a clown convention. These disparate groups meet without a rumble. Like flicking a stereo switch, one harmonious tune whistles forth until musicians take their different paths. Hints of dawn accent the sleep-deprived, giddy feel of these surreal moments, popping up and disappearing like the final dreams of night.

Since assigning myself the onerous task of exploring carnival across different cultures – sense of duty – I always wonder on arrival if I've placed a good bet. In the dead of winter, Basel, Europe's pharmaceutical capital, a mishmash of Swiss, French and German influences, seemed a long shot. But the carnival comes out of the gate beautifully, winning with the unique eye candy one hopes for. Carnival here is not cobbled together to please tourists. It presents a town unconcerned with outside onlookers, ruffling its soul, reawakening identity.

Fasnacht retains themes of renewal, with traditions back to the Middle Ages, and threads to pagan times, but it differs from most Lent-based festivals. The region's protestant reformation roots broke out on Mardi Gras, in 1529. Instead of ending with Ash Wednesday, Basel's carnival begins after it, providing the chance to catch an extra carnival. Once ignited, carnival fuses round around the clock for three days. Until it folds at 4am, for many it is an ultra endurance event.

Afternoon parades with floats are punctuated with medieval rituals, the dance of death (Totentanz) – carnivals everywhere mock mortality. On the first and third nights, groups gather to drink and recite Schnitzelbängg, satirical verses in Basel's mongrel dialect, mostly bedeviling local politicos. They can take a joke.

But the big guns come out on the second evening – the Guggemusige battle of the brass bands. Gugge bands, wonderfully costumed with dented instruments, wear masks that accommodate mouth pieces. Musicians practice all year in secret, playing off key, yet the music's fervent energy is a weather-defying pleasure. Bands march the streets, invading restaurants and pubs. Tubas and trombones squeeze into nooks and crannies. Listener delight or anguish depends on mood and proximity to a trombone, and perhaps imbibements.

Gugge leaders sport the grandest attire, with huge heads. Costumes are secret until carnival. They range from jungle animals to Uncle Sams to Terminators. Some bands are female – cross-dressing is a carnival mainstay across many cultures – detectable only because they strut with a little more grace than pomp and circumstance.

What this mannered, family-friendly carnival lacks in the well-packed thongs in parts of the Latin south, it makes up for in the cerebral. Basel's carnival is underpinned by unsparing social satire, in masks and shining from painted lanterns. Targets are gathered from Basel, Switzerland at large, neighboring countries and the full international circus.

Basel’s satirical splendor continues in the final evening of carnival, but in the more subdued form of poetry and song in the city’s unique local dialect. Fortunately the pubs and cellars that host these happenings often hand out translations in English.

Fasnacht’s most coveted foreign target was once President George W. Bush. Despite his low profile of late, I don’t think he’ll ever fully disappear, given his accolades for the fine financial mess from playing footsy with Wall Street. Bush once vied for top honors with Silvio Berlusconi, the media mogul who until recently was engaged in another raucous romp as Italy's prime minister. The Swiss delight in portraying Silvio as a cross between the Godfather and Mussolini, with a bit of media Big Brother thrown in. I’ve no doubt Berlusconi, the carnival gift that keeps on giving, will soon return to prominence, perhaps this time riding an exotic dancer in a scene that would make Fellini proud. Hi Ho, Silvio, racing away from the taxman and a jailor.

It’s vicarious mischief to speculate who else will prove target grade for masks and lanterns. I’ll lay a bet now that Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the IMF, will be on hand, perhaps holding court before a parliament of hotel maids.

Perhaps North Korea’s Kim Jong Un will wear the banner of “Sexiest Man Alive” bequeathed him by “The Onion.” Bibi Netanyahu might be hiding a Romney/Ryan yard sign behind his back. Rupert Murdoch, I imagine him wearing East German bugging equipment from “The Lives of Others”. The new president of Egypt might do the King Tut Strut. Bankers, Swiss and other species, will be well-represented.

Aspects of America often loom large in Basel. Our last election offers a bonanza of irresistible potential, from Republican primary oddities to Karl Rove and his SuperPAC backers. Envision casino sultan Sheldon Adelson, the mogul of Macau, shooting craps with Newt Gingrich, or Clint Eastwood in a shootout with a gang of empty chairs. Wayward generals, certainly. US gun mania, sadly likely. Mad Hatter lemmings staggering along the edge of fiscal cliffs. America, take pride in your rich inspiration for carnivals everywhere. Washington ought to be carnival capital.

Fasnacht is a bellwether of public opinion. Some images conjure common concerns – medical care, retirement pensions, medical care, church sex scandals, Middle East fiascos, even preoccupation with cosmetic surgery. Global warming, to be sure. Our anxieties bubble up in front of fun-house mirrors.

In an alley, a garish troupe in comedic masks with cartoonish features – giant red noses, and huge teeth, between which eyes peer out – confronts me. Their noses are of Basel's unique style, best described as phallic, some drive home the point with a small figure of a chorus girl hanging on a nostril. As I gaze into their eyeteeth, several hold my attention pouring me wine, posing for a photo. Their confederates covertly fill my coat hood with a miraculous amount of confetti. As the night gets cold and I don my hood, the confetti spills past my ears into my shirt and my coat pockets. When I pull something from an inside pocket, it still offers up confetti.

“Pack up all my care and woe, here I go, singing low, Bye Bye Blackbird.”
– 1926, Ray Henderson & Mort Dixon

In 2013, Basel Fasnacht begins at 4am Monday Feb. 18th. Don’t be late. (www.basel.com) There are other carnivals in Switzerland, including Lucerne, which celebrates February 7th-12th (www.myswitzerland.com). There is no better total immersion in a country’s culture than carnival. Explore possibilities at (www.carnifest.com). Come play the fool - food for the soul.

Related Articles:
Images of Basel; Switzerland's Graubunden Region; The Rosengart Collection, Lucerne; Monte Verità, Switzerland; Switzerland: Europe's Jewel Box; Switzerland Tourism's Intellectual History; Zurich


Name: Required
E-mail: Required
City: Required
Feedback:
 

Let Skip know what you think about his traveling adventure.

* * * * *



Ed Boitano's travel blog/review
Three Musical Pilgrimages: Mozart, Grieg and Hendrix

Troldhaugen Villa in Bergen, Norway
Johann Chrysostom Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756 - 1791) could read and compose music, plus play the violin and piano, when he was five years old. Born into a musical family in Salzburg, Austria (then the Holy Roman Empire), he had a unique ability for imitating music, which first became evident when he recited a musical piece by simply observing his father conducting a lesson to his older sister. This led to a childhood on the road, where the young prodigy performed before many of the royal courts of Europe.

Go There

Tom Weber's travel blog/review
Treasures of Ireland: The Irish Goodbye (Dispatch #20)

Irish sunset

The Palladian Traveler brings to a close his 20-part series on the Emerald Isle from an upscale restaurant in downtown Dublin where he files his final dispatch and then quietly slips away.

Go There

John Clayton's travel blog/review
Two "MUST SEE" Truly Spectacular Places in Europe. Here's Why.

Culzean Castle, Scotland
The Han Grotto and Culzean Castle. As the name of my Traveling Boy feature is "Travel With a Difference," it's important to me to always bring you offbeat and unusual tourist places around the world you may not know about. These two fit that category to a T, and they're absolutely worth a visit. One's in Scotland and one's in Belgium. Culzean (pronounced CULLANE) Castle is located near Maybole, Carrick, on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland.

go there

Ringo Boitano's travel blog/review
Highway 49 Revisited: Exploring California's Gold Country

aurora borealis lights up the night sky near Fairbanks
In the 1840s, the population of California was only 14,000, but by 1850 more than 100,000 settlers and adventurers had arrived from all over the world – and they came for one reason: gold. James Marshall had discovered the first gold nugget at Sutter’s Mill in El Dorado County, creating the largest gold rush in history.

go there

Eric Anderson's travel blog/review
Lake Charles’ Family-Size Low-Key Mardi Gras

dressed-up for the Mardi Gras
The Southwest Louisiana Mardi Gras in Lake Charles, the second largest in Louisiana, does not need parents there to avert their children’s eyes. This is family entertainment and children are very much part of it. The main office of the Lake Charles CVB has costumes from last year’s Mardi Gras but it also has figures to fascinate little ones from country boys fishing for their dinner to alligators who have already fed and are rubbing their stomachs.

go there

Fyllis Hockman's travel blog/review
Puerto Vallarta: Magic and Mayhem on the Malecon

Cedar Hill, Washington DC
So I heard that you could spend from dawn to dusk on the Malecon in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and never get bored and I thought, "Okay, I'm up for that challenge." Well, maybe not the dawn part – I'm not a morning person – so I had no problem leaving those early hours to the joggers and those seeking an early start to catch their red snapper for dinner.

Go There

Greg Aragon's travel blog/review
Relaxing at The Inn at Laguna Beach

Greg at Huntington Beach

There is nothing like sleeping in an ocean-front room and awakening to the sounds of waves crashing against the sand. It is one of the finer things in life. And it is exactly what I experienced recently on a memorable getaway to The Inn at Laguna Beach. The adventure began when a friend I pulled off the 5 Freeway in Orange County and took SR 133 south nine miles through winding lush hills and wilderness areas to the ocean.

Go There

Bev Cohn's travel blog
Tim Robbins On His Road To Stardom

Tim Robbins

Award-winning Tim Robbins began his career on episodic television. Robbins' film work, however, is what catapulted him into becoming a major movie star including "Bull Durham" and "Mystic River" for which he won multiple awards. Equally at home behind the camera, he directed the riveting "Dead Man Walking." He is Founder and Artistic Director of The Actors' Gang, which he formed thirty-five years ago and has directed multiple provocative productions.

Go There

Gary Singh's travel blog/review
Monte Verità: In the Footsteps of Anarchy

Chiara's Rainbow, Monte Verita, Switzerland
Just as I reach the end of a squiggling, multicolored path, an acorn plummets from an oak tree above me. It lands at my feet, just as the path culminates at a mandala of Venetian glass, eight feet in diameter. On the worn-out front lawn of Monte Verità, the Mountain of Truth, this path, Chiara's Rainbow, evolves through the colors of the spectrum – red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and finally violet – before arriving at the mosaic mandala where psychic energies supposedly prevail. The falling acorn brings me to the present moment.

go there

John Blanchette's travel blog/review
Rolling Through the Outback on the Indian Pacific's Christmas Train

Santa with native Australian on an Indian Pacific Christmas train stop
It was mid December and a heat wave had embraced the country. Record setting temperatures were searing the land from high 90s in Sydney and Adelaide to blast furnace heat in the great Outback. Fires were raging throughout the country. But we were cool, riding the air-conditioned Indian Pacific railway across the southern expanse of Australia to the west coast city of Perth, a four-day transcontinental tour...

Traveling Guest

Raoul Pascual's travel blog
Leviticus 20:13
Sent by Tom of Pasadena, CA

It all makes sense now. Gay marriage and marijuana was legalized in the last election. Leviticus 20:13 states
"If a man lays with another man, he should be stoned..." We've been interpreting it wrong all these years!

go there

Tim Mattox's travel article
John January and Linda Berry Have Chemistry

Nemeth and Deanna Bogart performing at Rosarito Beach, Baja, Mexico

Chemistry by its very definition is the spontaneous reaction of two people to each other, especially that sense of mutual attraction and understanding. This month John January and Linda Berry release their new project, Chemistry 101 and together they explore a range and depth of musical styles on both organic and physical levels. As a joint labor of love, January says Chemistry 101 is pretty straight-forward.

Go There

Richard Carroll's travel blog/review
Costa Rica's Green

Costa Rican volcano

Sitting at an umbrella table in downtown San Jose overlooking the Plaza de la Cultura is like a page out of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises." The plaza is laid out in a maze of stalls where passive vendors sell sparkling silver jewelry by the trayfull, hand-carved clay masks, colorful Guatemalan belts, area rugs, and hammocks perfect for a midday siesta. Three men play an old wood marimba over the buzz of the crowd while a steaming plate of Gallo Pinto (rice and beans) is served to an elegant lady who was performing with her guitar...

go there

Richard Frisbie's travel blog/review
The Shortest Road Trip

rainbow at Niagara Falls

The Canadian side of Niagara Falls has a 35 mile linear park, called Niagara Park, with seemingly endless attractions stretched along the full length of the Niagara River. I recently spent several days driving to each, sampling fantastic wines and great food while enjoying the rugged beauty of the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. It became one of the shortest road trips ever. From tunnels under the falls, to zip lines into the gorge, and from a soaking boat ride to the base of the falls, to a challenging hike along the shore of the rapids, Niagara Park's attractions are amazing.

go there


© TravelingBoy.com. All Rights Reserved. 2015.
This site is designed and maintained by WYNK Marketing. Send all technical issues to: support@wynkmarketing.com
Friendly Planet Travel

Lovin Life After 50

Big Sur ad

Tara Tours ad

Alaska Cruises & Vacations ad

Cruise One ad

Visit Norway ad

MySwitzerland.com

Sitka, Alaska ad

Montreal tourism site

Visit Berlin ad

official website of the Netherlands

Cruise Copenhagen ad

Sun Valley ad

Philippine Department of Tourism portal

Quebec City tourism ad

AlaskaFerry ad

Zurich official website

Zuiderzee Museum ad

Like-a-Local.com