One of my favorite parts about living in a foreign country is celebrating new holidays. In Baden Württemberg, Germany, Fastnacht is one of the biggest parties of the year. Although it’s not a national holiday, it is still typically celebrated in the Swabian and Alemannic regions of Germany, France, and Switzerland. Similar to Carnivale (or Mardi Gras), Fastnacht ushers in the season of lent with copious amounts of costumes, food, alcohol, parades and parties.
My first Fastnacht experience was in a small suburb of Freiburg. By 9 A.M. I awoke to the sound of techno music and drunken teenagers chanting in the streets. Apparently, my vision of grandmothers in Dirndls passing out pretzels was not completely accurate. I quickly learned, it most definitely is not a PG holiday.
The parade was less than half a mile long, but the streets seemed to be packed with every single town inhabitant from the neighbor’s grandmother, to your sister’s newborn baby. The music was a mixture between club techno and traditional sing-a-longs. The parade floats varied from young school children in sweet animal costumes, to giant reefer floats with a stoner smoking a 3-foot long fake joint and dancing to Bob Marley. My favorite part had to be the witches. A big portion of the parade is men and women dressed up as witches to symbolize the end of winter and the banishment of all things evil. These witches actually pick people up over their shoulders, run a hundred yards, and only after so much kicking, let people down to rejoin their friends. A German friend told me that he once saw a witch steal a young girl’s shoe, and later saw that same girl hours later hobbling around on one foot. Apparently these witches take their jobs pretty seriously!
After the parade finished, the streets were covered in confetti, candy wrappers, and beer bottles. The last stragglers headed to nearby beer gardens to continue the celebration with friends, sausages, and wine. Fastnacht may not have been the celebration I was expecting, but it was definitely a fun experience that I’ll always remember.
Mary Carmody can be reached for comment at [email protected].
