Bärner Fasnacht
The Bärner Fasnacht has been held annually since 1982. The oldest evidence of the historical carnival in Bern can be found in the first half of the 15th century.
Bärner Fasnacht today
The Bärner Fasnacht is the third largest event of its kind in Switzerland after the Basel and Lucerne Carnivals . The kick-off begins on November 11th at 11.11 a.m. on Bärenplatz . At this point in time, the Bärner Carnival Bear is locked in the cage tower for its winter rest . This event is accompanied by various Guggenmusiken from the city of Bern and the surrounding area. The large padlock on a tower window remains visible to everyone until the actual start of Carnival. On the Thursday after Ash Wednesday , the carnival in Bern at the Käfigturm opens with the bear liberation and the subsequent “chüblete”. The carnival bear is woken up and released from its cage. After this spectacle , the Bärner Fasnacht drives its colorful being, especially in the alleys of the old town. In addition to almost 50 Guggenmusiken , various drum and Pfeiffer groups, there are various Schnitzelbänkler and theater groups who show their performances in public. Musically, the Bärner Fasnacht is shaped by the saxophone. On Friday afternoon, the children's carnival takes place on the platform with a procession to the bear carnival with various offers at the Bern Minster. On Friday night all witches meet on Bern's Münsterplatz (until 2011 on Ratshäxplatz or Rathausplatz) for the “Häxefasnacht”. On Saturday morning, schnitzel benches, poetic performances and the alley carnival theater “Jä Täll - so geit's!” Will be performed on various platforms in the lower old town. On Saturday lunchtime, the Guggenmusiken bassists meet at Schmiedeplatz for the “Bassists' Congress” and let the old town of Bern vibrate with their tubas and sousaphones . On Saturday afternoon, the parade takes place in front of a large audience, followed by the monster concert with many different guggen music. The Bärner Fasnacht ends on Sunday after three intense days.
On August 21, 2007, the Bärner Fasnachtsverein received the culture prize endowed with 100,000 Swiss francs from the civic community of Bern and was honored for its “unwavering commitment and wealth of ideas”.
history
In the sources, carnival games and parades, jester courts, street theater , carnival celebrations , minstrels and masks are mentioned. The oldest known report of carnival events in Bern comes from the year 1416, when the authorities intervened against begging for meat from masked journeymen accompanied by minstrels and against dressing up in general. From 1461 mutual visits of the federal places are mentioned. In 1461 Swiss citizens from Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Lucerne as well as citizens from Freiburg and Solothurn were officially invited to join the celebration in Bern. In 1506 people from Zurich, Basel and Solothurn attended the Bern Carnival. Burgers from Bern again attended the Carnival of Lucerne in 1470 and those of Schwyz and Unterwalden in 1497. These mutual invitations show that the Bern Carnival must have been a remarkable event. The carnival hostility of the Bernese authorities increased during the Reformation . The reformers regarded the carnival as papist , pagan and immoral. With the prohibition of the carnival, elements of the carnival were shifted to the Easter Monday parades that were held annually until 1798. In the interwar period , efforts were made to revive the carnival in Bern. It emerged Fasnacht newspapers , which struggled to find favor with the public. In the 1970s there were again isolated attempts to establish a Bern Carnival. With the establishment of the Bärner Fasnacht (VBF) association in 1982, this was successfully achieved under Martin Vatter.
Carnival Games
In the political environment of the Reformation, the carnival games and parades were a highlight of the Bern Carnival. In 1521, for example, a large satirical parade took place that mocked the emperor and the pope so viciously that the Sion Cardinal Matthäus Schiner publicly revolted and threatened the Bernese with divine punishment. In 1523 two more important carnival games were performed. These two performances also meant a direct attack on the Pope, the Catholic Church and their Bernese supporters. On February 15, 1523, the colorful and lavish carnival play by Niklaus Manuel Vom Papst and syner servants was shown on the centrally located Kreuzgasse in Bern . Using the example of a deceased rich farmer, the greed and corruption of the Catholic Church of that time were denounced and mocked. During the game, the Pope was even referred to as the " Antichrist ". Three days later, on Ash Wednesday , the Roman indulgence was carried through the streets of Bern in a kind of procession while the satirical bean song was being sung and mocked. On the following Sunday, February 22nd, 1523, the second carnival game The Great Difference Between the Pope and Christ Jesus took place. In this game, the Pope and his warlike retinue met in two crossing trains, Jesus riding a donkey, followed by the poor and sometimes brittle disciples . In order to avoid such events, a law against Carnival was passed in Bern in 1524; in any case, another carnival game, Der Ablasskrämer, by Niklaus Manuel could no longer be performed in 1525 . After the Reformation had been introduced in Bern in 1528, only two carnival games were staged at the beginning of this new era : in 1530 the socially critical game Elsi Tragdenknaben by the Basel resident Thomas Wolff and in 1531 the moralizing game by the town clerk Hans von Rüte, directed against the Catholic Church.
Millet Monday
Hirsmontag was an integral part of the old Bern Carnival. Millet was one of the staple foods of the common people until the 16th century. At the beginning of Lent , millet porridge was publicly distributed to the poor on millet Monday. This day was considered a carnival festival day . Respected and wealthy citizens donated a fir tree or a barrel of wine in addition to the porridge. The "Tannenfuhr" was combined with dances and theatrical performances and with a colorful parade. The bear or the bear skin carrier, Wilhelm Tell , the three federal brothers, the donkey doctor, the "Chudermann" and the "Mieschmann" were important figures in this parade . Popular themes in the street theater staged at the time were the story of David and Goliath , William Tell's apple shot and the battle of Murten . Until the end of the 18th century, millet Monday was celebrated in Bern, a millet fool was elected and crowned with deer antlers. That is why deer Monday was sometimes also called deer Monday.
Easter Monday parades
Carnival elements have been preserved as part of the Easter Monday celebrations . On the morning of Easter Monday, the official Easter Monday celebrations began with the ceremonial procession of the government, the so-called "Inner Stand". The Inner Stand was made up of the Grand Council ("the Burgers"), the Small Council and the officials. After a service in the Bern Minster, they moved over the platform into the Bern City Hall in festive clothing . Negotiations took place there and then the entire inner stand went to the parlor ( guild house ) of the newly elected Schultheissen . In the afternoon the parade of the " Äusseren Stand ", a kind of premodern youth parliament, began. The Outer Stand was a sham government, which served the young Bernburgers to train themselves to be "statesman". This parade moved through the city and was accompanied by characters who had already played a role in the carnival celebrations. The bear or bear skin wearer, the three federal brothers, the armor men , Wilhelm Tell and Gessler , the musicians, the “health drinker” and the Mieschmann (wild man) moved through the city. The “Urispiegel” (actually Hurispiegel) appeared as a new and important figure at the Easter Monday parade. This emerged from the heraldic animal of the outer class. The Outer Stand originally chose a monkey as its heraldic animal because of the aping of the Inner Stand. In 1714 the monkey received a dagger, in 1720 a jupe according to the French fashion of the time. With these additions, the gradual transition to the Uris mirror took place. The figure of the Urispiegel caricatured the female fashion prevailing at the time. The often offensive clothing of the Urispiegel was decided by a "monkey commission". The Urispiegel was one of the main attractions of the Easter parades - an impressive figure that was still gossiped about in Bern's alleys and in the country weeks after the parade. The very assumption of who this or that allusion was aimed at was enough to talk about. With the fall of the Ancien Régime in 1798, the tradition of the Easter parade was also interrupted, in 1806 the custom was briefly revived and continued. In the 19th century, the official Bern highly valued the Easter Monday celebrations, while it rejected the Carnival. The last Easter parades took place in 1863 and 1879.
date
The evening before Lent was originally called Carnival. Lent began forty days and nights before Easter ( quadragesima ). The date of this farmer's carnival was changed in 1091 at the Synod of Benevento in the course of the Gregorian reforms , in that Sundays were no longer counted during Lent. The beginning of the priest or gentlemen's carnival was postponed by six days before the old date. Today Lent begins on Ash Wednesday, which is 46 days before Easter. The new Bärner Fasnacht is celebrated in a diplomatic manner between these previously often controversial dates; in Basel the old date of the farmers' carnival applies, in Lucerne the newer date of the Pfaffen or gentlemen's carnival.
literature
- K. Affolter: Carnival customs in old Bern . Folklore work. University of Bern, 1984.
- B. Etterich: Carnival theories in folklore and ethnology . Licentiate thesis, University of Bern, 1989.
- Sergius Golowin : Bern with and without masks. Spring rites and legends of a city . Sinwel, Bern 1968
- Sergius Golowin: Dr Baer is off. Lively Bern Carnival - history and stories . Fischer, Bern 1999, ISBN 3-85681-388-8 .
- Roland Zoss: The Bear Carnival. Picture book . Fischer / Licorne, Bern 1994, ISBN 3-85681-331-4 .
- Peter Pfrunder: priests, heretics, death eaters. Carnival culture of the Reformation period - The Bern games by Niklaus Manuel . Chronos, Zurich 1989, ISBN 3-905278-37-5 .
- Rudolf J. Ramseyer: The carnival in the city and canton of Bern. In: Bern journal for history and local history. Volume 4, 2001, pp. 1-54. (Online resource)
- E. Stalder: The biggest annual event in Old Bern: The colorful and varied Easter celebrations . In: The Bund . No. 73, 78 and 84, 1986.
- E. Stalder: The Carnival Games in Old Bern . In: The Bund. No. 49 and 55, 1987.
