Morgestraich Part II

All too soon, the alarm was going off and it was time to get ready to head out into the chilly night to see Morgestraich. I put on four layers of clothes and wandered out to the streets where it was clear that for many the party from the night before had never stopped. We made our way down to Barfüsserplatz, one of the primary gathering areas for Morgestraich, and found our spot in the crowd at about 3:50 AM.

At the stroke of 4 AM, all the lights in the city went out. The businesses that were still open had taped black sheets in all their windows, the citizens all had their lights out and all the lights on the street were now out. The crowd started to cheer, louder and louder and the parades started.

Bands of musicians, called cliques, began marching down the streets in every direction. Each clique has its own, new theme every year and some of the cliques have been around for close to 100 years.

They portray their theme on a huge lantern which is carried in front of the group. The themes are typically related to politics or events going on in Basel or sometimes in the world that catch the interest of the clique. They use this arena to make a statement on a topic they feel strongly about and oftentimes it is done in a sarcastic or humorous way. For example, I saw one lantern with what appeared to be a local politician whose nose was made into a big pig snout. That one made me giggle as it reminded me of my father who would do that to his least favorite politicians in the Sunday paper sometimes, which we would discover later when we were reading it.

Following behind the lanterns are all the piccolo players and after them came the drum players. It really is a sight to see, up to several dozen people, all in the same costume and mask, all with small lanterns on their heads marching down the street. The music they play is solemn and usually restricted to miliary marches.

Here are a few examples of the large lanterns that were carried in front of two of the cliques.




Around 6 AM, M. took me to a restaurant to have some mehlsuppe, the traditional food of Morgestraich. It is flour soup, made from a roux and served with a topping of parmesan cheese. The restaurants were all packed with people coming in from the cold to enjoy this warm soup.

Later on Monday afternoon, this even took on a different feel and was my favorite part of the week. Two new groups made their appearance and the whole tone changed from solemn to downright silly. These were the Waggis and the Guggemusicians.

The Waggis (pronounced Voggys, like rhyming with soggy) are men who ride around in these carts and cause all kinds of mayhem. They wear matching uniforms and masks, which are notable for their HUGE hair and noses and big teeth. They give out flowers, candies, trinkets and blood oranges but beware! When you approach the cart to get these treats you are likely to get doused with confetti. I fell victim multiple times but I LOVED these guys.

The Gugge Musik is somewhat like a high school marching band in sound. They have drums and horns and play samba rythms and the horns are out of tune but just in a a right way to produce a kind of orchestrated, careless sound. When they come marching by you can't help but start bouncing around.

Here are my some of my mischievous buddies, the Waggis:







And the Guggemusicians:


This was a silly side of Switzerland that I hadn't seen before and as the events closed out at 4 AM on Thursday morning I was very sorry to see them go (especially the Waggis!!). By the way, winter still seems to be winning.. the snow keeps coming!

For those interested in learning more about this event, there is a nice book in English that covers it, "Lifting the Mask: Your Guide to Basel Fasnacht" by Peter Habicht. The author is in a small clique and gives an insiders guide to the event and the etiquette of attending Fasnacht in Basel.



Posted from Munich