In the towns and villages of the Alpine areas of Austria, Southern Germany, the Black Forest, the area around Lake Constance, and in German-speaking France and Switzerland, wherever Alemannic tribes had settled, "Fasnet" (Fasnacht) is celebrated. Compared to Karneval and Fasching, the Swabian-Alemannic Fasnet is a more pagan affair in which the old traditions of driving out winter have mingled with the pre-Lenten celebrations. The celebrants dress as spirits, demons, and witches, wearing heavy wooden masks, intricately carved and handed down from generation to generation.

The "Zünfte" (craftsmen's guilds) first began the customs. In the late Middle Ages, all craftsmen had to belong to a "Zunft" (guild). Today, only the name "Narrenzunft" (fools' guild), used for the clubs organizing the festivities, reminds us of this historical background. The role of the guilds has long changed in our modern society and various reforms in the 19th and 20th centuries have changed the old customs. Still every town and almost every village in the Swabian-Alemannic area observes its own traditional kind of "Fasnet."

Typical of the Alemannic Fasnet is the use of elaborate, beautifully carved wooden masks. Recurring over and over are representations of the "Wise Fool" with smooth, serene, pale faces, scary witches with grotesque features and animal masks of all kinds, and masks of mythological characters that figure in local lore and history. Everyone in the group wears the same costume, walks the same and behaves the same.

The really wild time starts on the Thursday, called "Schmutziger Dunschtig" or "gumpiger Donnerstag" (fettiger Donnerstag), meaning "greasy Thursday," which refers to the "Fasnetküchli," a traditional deep-fried donut-type pastry. Since during lent no meat was allowed the meal consisted mainly of Küchli (Strübli, Schenkeli and Scherben) or possibly fish and wine, for "fish wants to swim." "Küchleessen" is in some places also celebrated on the first Sunday in Lent. An old rhyme of the area goes like this:

Luschtig isch die Fasenacht,
wenn mein Mueder Küchli bacht.
Wenn sie aber kaini bacht,
ischt koi luschtigi Fasenacht.

Freiburg and some other towns and villages celebrate on this day the "Weiberfasnacht", the so called "Frauenrecht." On this day women rule, no men allowed, except maybe in the evening for dancing. In some areas it is also the day of the Kinderfasnet (Children's Fasnacht), although children are always involved in all events.

Beginning with the "Schmutziger Donnerstag" celebration in Luzerne (dating according to records to 1374), a visitor could travel from village to village and festival to festival through the week up to Ash Wednesday and beyond.

In the "Rottweiler Narrensprung," for centuries a high-light of the culturally rich Swabian-Alemannic Fasnet, masked persons jump on very long staffs and masks are worn to hide the person behind it. In a "Narrensprung" one finds different masks, some based on very old tradition. But participants may also show up as cowboys, Indians, clowns, policemen, etc.

"In Rottweil in the Black Forest, for instance, groups of different types of "fools" jump through the town's Black Gate at 8 o'clock in the morning of Fastnacht Monday. They have local dialect names such "Gschellnarren" (bell fools), "Fransenkleidele" (fringe cloth) or " Schantle" (no clear meaning). In Elzach in the Black Forest, the "Schuddig" fools, dressed in red fringe clothes, wooden masks and large hats covered with snail shells, run through the town beating the people with blown-up hogs' bladders, while at 5 o'clock in the morning the "Taganrufer" (day announcers) who wear pointed hats, ridicule and criticize local events which they read from the "Narrenbuch" (fools book). In Wolfach, the "Wohlauf" fools stroll around in nightgowns, night caps and white stockings. In Überlingen, the "Hänsele" crack their long whips. Innovation from recent years-- including the parades taken over from the Rhineland, which are becoming more elaborate every year--are mixed with old, sometimes even ancient customs" (Kramer, p. 13).

Fools' Guilds invite and visit each other for parades and fun, beginning on the Sunday before Ash Wednesday, and beyond Ash Wednesday for the celebrations of the "Alte Fasnacht." You will find some of the same groups at the "Narrentreffen in Cannstatt" (which takes place every 4 years), in Hirrlingen, and for "Guggenmusik" concerts in Schwäbisch Gmünd and Basel. They share in the fun, feasting, drinking and merrymaking. On "Funkensonntag" (Sunday of the sparks) everyone participates as the "Fasnet" is symbolically buried or ceremoniously burned. These fires have been documented since the 15th century. The church had insisted on a visible end to carnival celebrations and on a burning of the "spirit of Fasnacht."

Die Allemannisch-Schwäbische Fasnet, Künzig, Johannes, Landesstelle für Volkskunde, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1950

German Holidays and Folk Customs, Kramer, Dieter, An Atlantik-Brücke Publication, 1986

Narrenidee und Fastnachtsbrauch: Studien zum Fortleben des Mittelalters in der Europäischen Festkultur, Metzger, Werner, Universitätsverlag Konstanz, 1989

"Swiss Carnival Craziness," German Life, Feb./March 1999