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Fastnacht Celebrations
A number of German festivals and celebrations are derived from
Catholic tradition. One of those is Fastnacht, which is a winter
celebration that precedes the Catholic Lenten season leading to Easter.
The Lenten season begins in late winter on a Wednesday and lasts forty days --
forty days during which practicing Catholics engage in fasting and sacrifice
(usually in the form of giving up something that one enjoys). As the
winter is already an austere time of year, the Germans use the last week before
Lent as a time for wild and raucous partying, a 'last chance' so to speak.
This is a short photo album with some scenes from the Fastnacht parade done in
February 2004 in the town of Nussloch where we live, with some background
information about Fastnachts in general.
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Fastnacht
celebrations last throughout the week preceding Ash Wednesday, the day
kicking off the Lenten season. The majority of them happen on the
Thursday the week before, serving as an occasion for parties and parades
such as the one Veronica came across in our 'hometown' of Nussloch.
As some of these pictures show, these parades show off some rather wild
costumes. Costumes such as these are often available in the German
department stores after Christmas (much like how Halloween costumes are
sold in the states).
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But
most of the costumes in the Nussloch parade were of the homemade variety,
as were a number of the 'floats'. Groups such as construction
engineers, sanitation workers, and farmers took the opportunity to sell
(or in some cases lampoon) their craft. Later on was a marching band
consisted of a similar batch of flannel-clad folks in construction gear.
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Fastnacht
is mostly celebrated in southern Baden-Wuerrtemberg and Bavaria, and
certain Black Forest towns have particularly noteworthy events, many with
a Halloween theme. One of the more famous that we are familiar with
(but have not seen) is in the central Black Forest town of Rottweil who
host celebrations on the Sunday beginning in the extreme cold of
5AM! Nusslochers are a bit more normal than that, we suppose.
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The
kids really get into the act, too. Some of them were together as a
class, all dressed together in a common theme. Or some of them, like
the peppy cripple at bottom right, simply join their parents in a
display. This was the funniest of the groups. They came from the
local clinic showing off some of the their trickier patients.
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A
lot of the local clubs, in this case a biking club, put forth floats or
parades for advertising. The local soccer club and horse club did the
same. This was a favorite among our photos -- we wondered how old
this particular contraption was. But hey, it still worked!
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Some groups went all out on the
floats, too, such as this Scottish Castle built on a pickup truck (we
think) and packed with people. Most of the floats have a farming
theme -- barns with lots of hay and pseudo-farm folk in wacky
costumes! |
The parade went all around the tiny downtown of Nussloch for a couple hours,
and virtually the entire town turned out to participate or watch. That's
the beauty of these events, it's a cool excuse for the town (and neighboring
communities, too) to have some fun during the dead of winter.
(C) 2004 Tom and Veronica Galvin |
