Isabelle
Carnivals mean floats, parades, costumes, and parties. It’s a time to be a little wild and go a little crazy before lent starts. It’s a time when rules do not apply.
Unless you are in Basel.
The carnival in Basel – the Basler Fasnacht – sure has all the floats, costumes, and parties. It’s also wild and crazy, just in a very orderly fashion.
When is Basler Fasnacht 2023?
Basler Fasnacht takes place from Monday, February 27, until Wednesday, March 1, 2023.
The Fasnacht carnival in Basel is the only protestant carnival in the world and has been around since the 14th century.
It starts at 4 AM on the Monday after Ash Wednesday – yes, rebellious Basel celebrates carnival during lent – and lasts exactly 72 hours.
The city becomes a magical place with colorful costumes, marching bands, and the world-famous fife and drum formations reminiscent of military tattoos.
It’s difficult to describe magical places – so you should probably get up at an ungodly hour on Monday morning, put on some warm clothes, and experience it yourself!
Day-by-day highlights of Basler Fasnacht
🎉 Monday
Morgestraich: The Fasnacht starts at 4 AM sharp, when all the lights in the city will be turned off. The Morgestraich features a parade with typical fifers, drums, and beautiful hand-painted lanterns. It’s truly enchanting - and crowded.
Cortege: This is the big parade with all the floats and marching bands (Gugge). Make sure you wear your carnival badge (Blagette) and get ready to have confetti (Räppli), flowers (Mimösli), oranges, and candy is thrown at you.
Gässle: Every night, the fife and drum formations wander through the inner city of Basel. I intentionally said wander because there is no specific route. The original formations often split up and play together in new combinations. Just stroll along with them and experience a new side of Basel by night.
Laternenausstellung: Starting on Monday night and ending on Wednesday morning, all the lanterns from the Morgestraich will be displayed at Münsterplatz. If you get a chance, check them out when they are lit up at night.
🎉 Tuesday
Kinderfasnacht: There’s a big parade on Tuesday, especially for all the kids.
(Useful side note: Parents can pick up a kids' badge for free at the local police stations. It is a special badge with all the contact information in case the kid gets lost.)
Gugge Konzert: In the evening, all the marching bands play a big concert downtown. They cannot participate in the Morgestraich, so Tuesday night is their time to shine (loudly).
🎉 Wednesday
It’s essentially just like Monday, minus the Morgestraich.
Respect the rules of Basler Fasnacht
Remember the rules I mentioned earlier? Now that you know where to go let’s look at what (not) to do there.
Above anything else, you need to be aware that you are a spectator and not a participant.
In Basel, there is a strict separation between the two, and the spectators do not dress up, wear funny hats or paint their faces. They look like, well, like they always do. Normal.
But that’s only the beginning.
In Basel, carnival fun is serious business. If I were you, I’d follow all the rules below because you do not want to be that person and end up with confetti everywhere. I literally mean everywhere.
- For the Morgestraich, show up on time – actually, be a little early. This should be pretty self-explanatory. We are in Switzerland, after all.
- During the Morgestraich, neither use a flash when taking pictures nor turn on a flashlight.
- Wear a carnival badge (Blagette). They make different versions at different prices, and the Blagette is like the magical key to be part of the experience without ending up with confetti in all the wrong places (where it tends to stay for weeks)...
- Do not walk through the formations.
- Do not dress up unless you are part of a carnival group.
- Do not pick up confetti from the ground. People will know when you did. (In Basel, even the confetti follows the rules: The groups buy giant bags of confetti – all the confetti in these bags will have the same color. If you throw confetti that is not single-colored, everyone will know that you picked it up from the ground.)
- Do not throw confetti at active participants of the carnival. If they throw it at you, quietly count to ten and smile.
- Do not throw any of the candy or fruit back at the floats.
- Do not bring an umbrella to any of the parades.
- Make sure you eat as much Mehlsuppe (it's flour soup, but it's way more delicious than it sounds) and Zwiebelwähe or Käsewähe (onion quiche or cheese quiche) as you can.
Got it? Good. I’ll see you in Basel, then!
You will probably find me enjoying the Gässle. It’s my favorite part of the Fasnacht, giving me goosebumps every time. It’s a beautiful mixture of melancholy and joie de vivre that you can only find in Basel.
Plus, there is usually less confetti, so that always helps.
(All photographs are copyright by Bill Harby)
Luc
Dimitri Burkhard
Christian
Loved the article but still have questions in ‘parade etiquette’.
1. You need a badge?! Is this true for all canton parades? What does the badge mean?
2. Is it poor etiquette to throw confetti at those marching in the parade?
3. When you get confetti dumped (and I mean dumped) on you, am I to assume I was singled out? Perhaps, because I wasn’t wearing a badge?
Clueless in Zug. :-)
Thanks, Clueless!
1. As far as I know, all the canton parades have a badge. You don’t necessarily “have to” buy one, but it’s highly encouraged. The money usually goes to the different groups that participate in the parade and helps them cover their expenses.
Since there are no tickets and the parades are free, buying a badge is your way of supporting the local carnival. It’s like making a donation where you get a little souvenir.
2. Yep, it is frowned upon to throw confetti at the participants of the parade. Since they hardly see anything through their masks, it can be very irritating and distracting, especially for the musicians.
3. You are right about the confetti dumping. From what I can tell, you pretty much always get singled out by the participants and their big confetti bags. Wearing a badge definitely helps but sometimes you’re just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
I always try to look innocent and not make too much eye contact but sometimes all you can do is turn around and run as fast as you can. So my advice: Wear a badge and good (running) shoes.
I hope these answers help! Enjoy the carnival!
Best,
Isabelle
[…] there are, of course, quite some rules, even at the Fasnacht. I recommend you to head over to Isabelle’s article and read about them. Then hopefully you won’t suffer too much from Räppli being stuffed […]
[…] at Basler Fasnacht, there is no real difference between performers and spectators. Families and small groups of […]
Yes I lived in basel for four years. All as is described above – an amazing experience! Must be experienced in oerson.
Fantastic! Thanks for your kind words and approval, Barbara.