Lucerne Carnival
The Lucerne Carnival is the largest annual event in the city of Lucerne and Central Switzerland . Alongside the Basel Carnival , Rabadan and Bärner Fasnacht, it is one of the largest carnival events in Switzerland.
Reveille, Big Bang and "Fötzeliregen"
The carnival starts on Dirty Thursday ( "Schmotzige Donnschtig"), the Thursday before the Carnival Monday ( "Güdismäntig"). The festival in the old town begins with the vigil at 5 a.m. A boat with Brother Fritschi and his Fritschi family on board arrives at the Schweizerhofquai from Lake Lucerne in Lucerne . Brother Fritschi is the imaginary head of the largest and oldest guild in Lucerne, the Saffron Guild (founded around 1400). The “Big Bang”, a very loud detonation, gives the Guuggenmusigen and all carnival people the signal to start.
The Fritschi father and guild master for saffron receives Brother Fritschi and guides him to the Fritschibrunnen on Kapellplatz . They are accompanied by guests of honor, the Fritschi family (Fritschene, brother Fritschi's wife, with Narr, Bajazzo, child maid and farmer) as well as Harsthorn blowers and some Guggen musicians. On the Kapellplatz, the thousands of carnival enthusiasts who are already on their feet in the morning meet for the «Fötzeliregen» which consists of more than 5 million pieces of paper approx. 4 × 4 cm in size. The scraps of paper, which are made from old telephone books, are filled in several bags, each with an explosive body. These sacks, which were placed high above Kapellplatz the day before, will explode as soon as the Fritschi family has arrived at the Fritschibrunnen. The «Fötzeli» then rain on the crowd. Then the traditional oranges begin to be thrown around the Fritschibrunnen. There was a record attendance at the 2015 Tagwache with 18,000 participants.
The moves
On the afternoon of Dirty Thursday the first of two large parades, organized by the Lozärner Carnival Committee (LFK), takes place. On the parade route from the Hofkirche via the pier to the Neustadt, the guilds and societies of the city of Lucerne, Guuggenmusigen and other groups present themselves with wagons on which small stages are set up. Current events of a political and social nature are satirized there . More and more often, however, there are also fantasy subjects among them, where the focus is primarily on the craftsmanship involved in building the car and the masks ("Grende").
Around forty official (registered with the LFK) and usually as many unofficial numbers again are shown at the Lucerne carnival parades.
The second important day is the "Güdis-Mäntig" of the German Carnival Monday corresponds. Güdis comes from Güdel and means stomach pouch, stomach or belly; This means that you fill your belly again on Güdis Monday and Tuesday, before Lent begins on Ash Wednesday. This day is supported by a second guild, the Wey guild . The Wey Day Watch takes place at 6 a.m. Big Bang and «Fötzelirääge» are no longer available on Monday, but there is another orange throwing out at Kapellplatz. In the afternoon the parade takes place, which is designed the same as on Dirty Thursday except for one wagon (the wagon of the Wey guild instead of the saffron guild ).
Another highlight of the carnival is the "Monstercorso" on the following Tuesday evening, during which all Lucerne Guuggenmusigen, who have come together in the umbrella association of the "United" of Lucerne, made a huge procession over the pier and through the old town, the center of the street carnival, carry out. The order of the different Guuggenmusigen is traditionally structured, because older musicians are allowed to run further ahead in the sequence. First those who are in an anniversary year, then according to their age. No or only very small wagons are carried. There is no room for larger ones in the narrow streets of Lucerne's old town. The event turns out to be a single, wildly rhythmic roar of the wind and percussion instruments in an exuberantly dancing crowd.
Carnival ends with the beginning of Lent, Ash Wednesday (" Ash Wednesday "), ie the morning after the monster parade.
According to police and media reports, more than 210,000 carnival people stayed in the inner city on both sides of the Reuss during Carnival 2008 . That is 10,000 more than in the previous year.
In 2009, on Dirty Thursday, on the occasion of the big afternoon parade, police and media reports said 27,000 people lined the street. That is 2000 more than a year earlier. Even at the Güdis-Mäntig parade, 28,000 spectators attended the parade route, despite the moderate weather. According to the police, a total of 170,000 people attended the Lucerne Carnival in 2009. That is 40,000 fewer than a year earlier. The Lozärner Carnival Committee justified this decline in the Lucerne media with the bad weather on the carnival evenings.
literature
- Karl Lüönd : drums, dreams, traditions. Lucerne Carnival in words and pictures . Harlequin, Lucerne 1972
- Silvio Panizza (Ed.): Fascination Lozärner Fasnacht , 3 volumes. Verlag Lozärner Fasnachtsfüerer, ISBN 3-9521102-0-5
- Volume 1: The Guggenmusigen , Lucerne 1988
- Volume 2: History, guilds, parade, carnival balls , Lucerne 1989
- Volume 3: Customs - Carnival Art , Lucerne 1996
- Margrit Thüler (Red.): Festivals in the Alpine region . Migros-Presse, Zurich 1997, ISBN 3-9521210-0-2 , pages 84-91
- Emanuel Ammon (Ed.): Luzerner Fasnacht, A journey through time through two generations (illustrated book). Aura, Luzern 2005, ISBN 3-033-00508-X
- Emanuel Ammon (Ed.): JoDu-Fäscht: Luzerner Fasnacht 2008 (illustrated book). Aura, Lucerne 2008, ISBN 978-3-9523375-0-9
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Big Bang and Fötzeliregen: The day guard rings in the Lucerne Carnival , Luzerner Zeitung , February 23, 2017, accessed on February 25, 2017.
- ↑ SRF: Tagesschau of February 11, 2002: Güdismäntig ( Memento of the original of July 24, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed February 11, 2013.
- ↑ Güdis Tuesday. (No longer available online.) German dictionary, archived from the original on February 1, 2015 ; accessed on January 31, 2015 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
