Winter Adieu (Satis Shroff)

ADIEU, WINTER (Satis Shroff)

It was a beautiful, sunny Fasnet Monday as the 4,000 masked men and women and music groups marched in downtown Freiburg. There were motley clad 10,000 spectators from the Swabian Gate right up to the Holzmarkt, all out to be a part of the spectacle called the Rose Monday procession. Some 120 Zünfte, as Fasnacht associations are called in German, took part. Representative groups from the entire Baden-Württemberg, Lahr and Switzerland were there. The end of the procession comprised the float of the Eleven Elders, right after the Freiburger Witches.

In the three country triangle: Germany, Alsace and Switzerland’s Canton Basle, Fasnacht or Fasnet is celebrated with much ado. In Alsace (France), we have the traditional Fasnacht celebrations in picturesque hamlets like Dessenheim, Rustenhart, Rouffach, and big towns like Selestat, Mulhouse and lovely Colmar. Instead of ‘Narri, Narro’ the Alsatians greet you with ‘Helo!’ thrice.

At the end of the Freiburger Fasnet there was the traditional washing-of-the-wallet ceremony with contents in the fountain opposite the Town Council building and also in the Freiburger streamlet called the Bächle, which runs through the town. There’s a saying that you have to marry a Freiburger maiden if you happen to fall into the stream. The traditional people of Freiburg believe that you wallet gets filled up with money if you wash it in the Freiburger Bächle.

On Ash Wednesday the Fasnet celebrations came officially to an end. The knaves, witches and the Freiburger Lalli and the Schauinsländer Berggeister took part in the funeral marches in different parts of the town with feigned cries and tears, sad that the season of merry-making, drinking and foolery was over. In Kappel and elsewhere, the effigy of winter was burnt in a bon-fire in front of the town council, and the Schauinsländer cried buckets of tears.

Well, Winter has gone and Spring has just arrived. You hear the finches, blackbird (amsel), robins tweeting and chirping in the wee morning hours. The ice in my garden has started melting, but the glacier at the entrance hasn’t as yet. It’s just a matter of time and it’ll disappear too. You can feel the warm, reassuring rays of the sun caressing your face after four long months frosty, icy, snowy winter. The grass is suddenly green underneath the brown sheath above. Life has been secretly flourishing all the while.

If you want to attend the Swiss Morgestraich then you’ll have to get up early. The train to Basle leaves Freiburg at 2:30 am. A ticket costs between 15 and 20 euros. The Swiss police in Basle, which is the second biggest city in Switzerland, distribute badges to children with their names and mobile call numbers because the lights in Basle suddenly go out at 4am.

It’s pitch dark. A command is given: ‘Achtig! Morgestraich Vorwärts, marsch!”

You hear piccolo flutes and drums around you in the darkness. People, especially small children, have angst that they might get lost in among the mass of visitors from all over Europe and the world.  The celebration ends on Thursday at 4pm. If you haven’t been to the Morgestraich in Basle, it ought to be in your ‘Bucket List’. It’s a must. With all those peaceful 12,000 participants; corteges, processions, dancers and Guggen musicians.

Unlike in Germany, it’s only the cliques who disguise themselves. It’s a silent, poetic spectacle. The Swiss are not amused when you sing and sway with your friends like in a beer-tent in Munich. It is expected that the visitors should admire the mystic procession that unfurls before you. If you want to take pics with your digital camera, please don’t use the flash. Do buy a plakette to commemorate the event. Depending on the material used, a plakette costs between 8 to 100 Swiss Franks.

When in Basle, you must try the Mehlsuppe (flour soup) that is served in the many cafes in the Swiss town. Did you know that the Swiss invest 10 million Franks for the Morgestraich preparations? The Swiss corteges are great poets and distribute long verses during the processions. No, the interesting verses aren’t in English, Italian, Franch. They’re in Schwyzer Deutsch. Grüezi!