ZüriCarneval!

As all good Catholics (and all good college students) are well aware, Mardis Gras was last week, on March 7th. In many major cities, the build-up to Fat Tuesday is epic, with parades and parties that sometimes begin as early as epiphany and that escalate until Ash Wednesday, when festivities are put on hold for forty days of penitence.

Alex, anticipating

Unless you live in Zurich.  This Protestant city ignores the origins of Mardi Gras completely, celebrating their Fasnacht (Carnival) a weekend late.

Strange, but really, really fun.

For weeks in anticipation, stores have been selling confetti and costumes (for it is now, and not Halloween, that children dress up). And there was a whole weekend of festivals in Zurich, including a children's party, concerts, and, today, the Fasnacht parade. 

Dennis might laugh at me for saying this, but it was the best parade I've ever seen.

Clanging alpine cowbells kicked off the parade

I loved it because it was completely silly and completely interactive.  Every costumed child along the the parade route had a bag of confetti to throw to throw at the paraders. 

And these were of two sorts. There were the marching bands, which were completely undisciplined and wore costumes of amazing variety.  But, to a one, every marching band had one thing in common: every member had a drinking stein laced to his or her belt.  Some didn't wait until the end of the parade, however. Flasks and wine bottles were passed freely through the grinning ranks.

There were segways hidden under those skirts, and so the
band members glided down the street. Creepy and impressive.

This band was more of the norm: the bands are sponsored by cities, and
the members span all age groups.

And then, between the marching bands, there were groups of tricksters. Their costumes were even more impressive, and generally ran to monsters and witches with long-handled, crooked brooms, although there were dwarves and fairies as well. While there were a very few trucks piping music with candy-throwers on board, generally the only way for a kid to get candy at this parade was to endure the tricksters.  Sometimes they'd swipe a handful of confetti from a kid's bag in exchange for a piece of candy.

Ella, trading confetti for a sweet

but, more generally, there was a little more to put up with.  One parader took confetti from Alex and then ground it into his hair (to Alex's joy). Another had a purple face marker and gave Ella a dot on her nose before rewarding her for being a good sport.  And, to Ella's feigned indignation (but true delight), one witch picked her up bodily and carried her a little ways down the street.  

She got off easy: one band carried a large roll of saran wrap with them and would pick women out of the crowds, wrap them tightly, and leave them standing, helpless, in the middle of the street.

Inked

Bye bye, Ella

The kids quickly learned that throwing a handful of confetti at a trickster was the best way to catch their attention, and they would start hopping with anticipation when they saw monsters coming down the street. They put up with a lot, and their little pockets were bulging by the end of the hour-long parade.

Little Joey didn't know exactly what to make of this all.  He woke up from his nap just as the first trombone began his solo, and he steadfastly refused to leave the sanctuary of his stroller.  But he threw confetti with the best of them.

And, with typical Swiss efficiency, the street cleaners were running within thirty minutes of the end of the parade.

I took some videos of the parade: here's 90 seconds of footage to give you a little more of the flavor of the afternoon.

And here are the kids, enjoying the aftermath.