Carneval march in Miege, canton Valais, February 2009
Lucern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Carnaval, a festive time before the sombre period of Lent, called Fasnacht in most Swiss German-speaking areas, kicked off early Thursday morning in Lucern and Soleure, with marches and music in the streets. Swiss cantons and villages celebrate their carnivals at different times around the start of Lent, the period leading up to Easter. The Catholic cantons generally start earlier and end before Lent, on Ash Wednesday, 17 February this year.
Canton Valais’s Carnaval begins tomorrow, Friday 12 February. Festivities continue until 17 February, although some of the German-speaking areas celebrated early.
The most famous of the Protestant cantons’ carnivals are in Basel, 21-23 February and Bern, 18-20. Bern’s fete is relatively young, started only in 1982, but it’s a colourful event.
Links to: Valais dates, Basel Fasnacht (Ger) and city tourism office in English, Bern Fasnacht (Ger)
This work by genevalunch.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.
News story, GenevaLunch, 11 February 2010.
Filed under: Society
Tags: Basel, Bern, Carneval, Carnival, Fasnacht 2010, Lucern, Soleure, Switzerland, Travel
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