animiert magazin nummer21 winter

For several days in February, something like a state of emergency is declared across much of Switzerland. In Lucerne, Carnival is regarded as “rüüdig schön” – dialect for “sooo good”, and the people of Basel call Carnival the “three best days of the year”. Sometimes known as “the fifth season”, Carnival – or “Fasnacht” – is an estab- lished tradition marking the start of the 40-day period of Lent. But what is Fasnacht like in Engelberg? Fasnacht in Engelberg is a unique event – and not on ly because the procession

wonder f u l creatures begin creeping out f rom the houses, a long the lanes and around ever y corner as Engelberg gets ready to par ty. Anoth- er unusua l feature of the Fasnacht in Engelberg is that the procession manager never rea lly knows how many par ticipants there are going to be until the procession ac tua lly gets going. The on ly thing that remains constant each year is that cowbell ensemble Cha llewaigger opens the procession, with the musicians cut ting a path through the crowd of on lookers. Then come the f loats: each year, the Fasnacht proces-

doesn’ t get star ted until the unusua lly late time of 8 p.m. Fasnacht has been celebrated here for a lmost a centur y, but it wasn’ t until the early 1960s that people in the v illage star ted get ting rea lly excited

sion takes a look back at some of the most memorable world and loca l events of the prev i- ous twelve months. And since the Familienfasnächtler soci- ety put together Engelberg’s ver y own Guggenmusik band,

The procession offers a very special look back at the previous year.

about it. At that time, the Brunni-Fasnachts- Gesellschaf t managed to spread Fasnacht fever in and around this pleasant va lley at the foot of the Hahnen and Titlis mountains. The rea lly unique thing about Fasnacht in Engelberg is that it is celebrated precisely at a time when the people in the lowlands are ac tua lly taking a breather f rom a ll the f un and games – on the Saturday before Shrove Tues- day, otherwise known as Fastnachtssamstag. On that Saturday, the mood in the v il- lage is remarkable. As the last few snowspor ts enthusiasts make their way home f rom their après-ski, a cer tain amount of hustle and bustle can be detec ted among the households of Engelberg. People decide for themselves how they want to dress up for the procession a long Dor fstrasse – a ll that mat ters is that it ’s colour f u l and at least a lit tle bit crazy. An hour before the Fasnacht proces- sion star ts, Dor fstrasse still looks rather tame, but then spirits, demons and other weird and

the v illage’s Carniva l procession has been accompanied by the cacophonic but uplif t- ing strains of a marching band. The ac tiv ities of the society have laid the foundations for ensuring that the Fasnacht tradition in Engel- berg is passed on to younger generations. Until the Kursaa l closed for renova- tions in 2016, it a lways played host to the big post-procession Carniva l ba ll. Now, the people of Engelberg celebrate Fasnacht until deep into the night in a decorated cowshed on the Ochsenmat te. When the last of the night owls wend their way home on Sunday morning, that marks the end of Fasnacht in Engelberg. A l- though the occasion can last a lmost a week in some other Swiss locations, here in Engelberg it is shor t but ver y intense. So remember to note down Fasnachtssamstag in your diar y – if you’ve never experienced it, then you haven’ t yet seen Engelberg at its wildest and wackiest!

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