[HN Gopher] Fasnacht: Basel's "three most beautiful days"
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       Fasnacht: Basel's "three most beautiful days"
        
       Author : cathartidae
       Score  : 33 points
       Date   : 2024-09-01 15:16 UTC (3 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (shoreleave.substack.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (shoreleave.substack.com)
        
       | Gys wrote:
       | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_of_Basel
        
         | tetris11 wrote:
         | Similar customs:
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perchta
        
       | bytephilosopher wrote:
       | It's fascinating to see how deeply embedded Fasnacht is in the
       | local culture, especially when you live in the heart of it. My
       | kids are always talking about it all year round, eager to play
       | the drum themselves. You can hear the music of drums and pipes
       | weekly in the evening as people practice, preparing for those
       | three days. It's truly a life-long commitment for many and
       | absolutely beautiful when it starts out of nothing at 4'o clock
       | in the night and vanishes as fast three days later.
        
         | tetris11 wrote:
         | It is also just rammed with tourists getting drunk and blasting
         | bad schlager music on the non-main parts of the parade.
         | 
         | It's fun to see once as an adult, but repeatedly? It's just an
         | excuse to get plastered under the guise of a cultural
         | celebration.
         | 
         | Probably how Irish people feel about the over-commercialization
         | St Patricks day.
        
       | VyseofArcadia wrote:
       | I think some of these traditions also persist in Pennsylvania.
       | The Pennsylvania Dutch serve a doughnut called a fastnacht on
       | Shrove Tuesday/Mardi Gras/the day before Ash Wednesday, and
       | Basel's Fasnacht and the Philadelphia mummers parade almost
       | certainly share some cultural DNA.
        
         | carlmr wrote:
         | >The Pennsylvania Dutch serve a doughnut called a fastnacht
         | 
         | In Swabia it's called a Fasnetskuchle. Maybe the Kuchle part
         | got dropped (little cake).
        
       | dkga wrote:
       | I highly recommend the Morgenstreich. It's really an amazing
       | experience and it's awesome to think you are sharing the same
       | experience as people continued to do for hundreds of years.
        
       | Log_out_ wrote:
       | another strange but fascinating thing.. burning the nubbel
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnPbquIyfjg
        
         | matttproud wrote:
         | And don't forget the Chienbase, which happens in nearby
         | Liestal: https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chienb%C3%A4se. This is
         | truly nuts to see in-person.
        
       | bwbuhse wrote:
       | I lived in Switzerland for a few years as a kid and used to love
       | Schaffhausen's Fasnacht. I'd actually totally forgotten about it
       | until seeing this post!
        
       | thallian wrote:
       | To add to the melancholy: Fasnacht in Basel was cancelled twice
       | during covid. That hit many people very hard. A small group
       | played two well known tunes (one in a minor key instead of the
       | usual major) up one of the towers of the minster to symbolically
       | carry Basler Fasnacht to its grave (downstairs the police was
       | trying to get the door open because they did not know about it).
       | The performance is haunting and is of course on youtube:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ge7LRIPKREA
        
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       (page generated 2024-09-04 23:02 UTC)