Zurich - Fasnacht

Some Bar Staff at Fasnacht

The Swiss are a fairly rule-driven people, but at Fasnacht, this all changes!

I asked some people what Fasnacht (“Carnival”) was in aid of and nobody could quite answer. I looked it up on Wikipedia and apparently they didn’t know either. One option (and let’s go for this one) is that it marks the last night before fasting starts (ie, Lent). Nowadays, it happens usually some time in February and the dates are different from Kanton to Kanton.

It’s a peculiarly Swiss tradition and is at its most famous in Basel. There’s not so much celebration of it in Zurich, but weirdly a small village called Bassersdorf then becomes famous for this one short period as the place to go for Fasnacht in Zurich and beyond.

I remember being on the train one night in Zurich at this time of year and it was the train that takes you up the Zurichberg; during the journey, they suddenly turned off all the lights in the train. I thought we were stranded and panicked a bit, but then realized how beautiful it was outside – the lights of the city were twinkling down below and you could see the stars above in the darkness. It was a magical moment. It was a little Fasnacht treat.

Anyway, this year, I went to Bassersdorf to join in the Fasnacht celebrations. The event consists of various tents set up as bars. Everyone dresses up in costumes. There don’t appear to be any rules about what the costume should be, but the vast majority of people do go in fancy dress. This year, there were men dressed as babies, various animals (tiger, penguin, emu, giraffe), various nationalities and characters (Viking, Eskimo), horror figures (zombies, devils), or just plain weird was also fine. Music is playing, people drink, and bands come round from tent to tent.

The bands play a special type of music that you hear only at this time of year called “Guggenmusik”. It’s quite hard to explain. The bands typically consist mostly of brass band music (trumpets, horns, etc), drums, and cymbals. They play “deutsche Schlager”, or “oom pah pah” music as the Brits would probably describe it, and also modern hits. However, they are played with a bit of a twist. It all sounds slightly out of tune and gives the impression of being spontaneous and improvised. It’s a bit of an acquired taste and you might think it’s something that’s gone horribly wrong, but actually it’s how it’s supposed to be. The bands spend the entire year practicing for their performance at these events and they go all round Switzerland to perform. I actually really like it as it’s associated with some very good memories.

A group of us met up beforehand, ate, had some champagne, then got changed into our costumes and went. We ended up staying mostly in the largest tent. To my complete surprise, Kelly Braendli (used to work in my previous company) was serving at the bar (I can hear Yuen and Gerard gasping as I write!). Zurich can really be quite a small place at times. More people came as the night went on, including people that at least some of us knew.

Somehow, I’m not quite sure how it happened, but someone ended up tapping my shoulder and asking me to lead the conga line that had built up. I should probably have refused, but I’d had a bit to drink, so joined in and before I knew it I was leading 60 strangers round the packed tent and getting myself into a right muddle. The guy behind me, who was originally the leader, spoke to me twice, once when I reached a dead end and didn’t know what to do, so made everyone do a 180 degree turn, and once at the end of the dance. Unfortunately, I couldn’t understand him, so I wasn’t exactly responsive. I have a strange feeling that maybe I wasn’t doing the right thing.

By the end of the evening, everyone was standing and dancing on the benches, swinging side to side, arm in arm, all very merry and convivial. The atmosphere was friendly and as inhibitions went down, strangers were more and more likely to talk to you. The age range was mixed; some children were even present. It was enough to make you think that the human race can be pretty fantastic at times.