Fastnachtsfest!

It's the weekend before Ash Wednesday, and you know what that means...Karneval! (Here's a much better description of the holiday than I'd ever be able to give: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnival_in_Germany,_Switzerland_and_Austria) Despite the grim forecast for unusually cold weather, a bunch of us headed back to Luzern today to take part in the festivities!

A photo of the Fastnachtsbaum in the main square - I'm
not quite sure what each of the things hanging on it
represent, but I think different organizations each get to
put one up? Some were really cool and others were just
grotesque, like the bloody teddy bear hanging on the other
side of the tree...

In case you didn't read the link above, you should know that a main attraction of Karneval/Fasching/Fastnachtsfest is the elaborate costumes that everyone wears...and the ones we saw today were incredible! Many of them included gruselig (~creepy) masks with wide open mouths and huge eyes, but others had silly wigs or Game of Thrones-style layers, or just bright colored suits and hats. All of the costumes were so well made, and they all seemed to have so much work put into them. I was especially impressed with the ways people worked in strollers or small wagons to their costumes - we passed one that was a perfectly made pirate ship, just the right size to hold a tiny young pirate brandishing a tiny sword.

Unfortunately this is a terrible picture...but just trust me, it was so cute!

The best part, though, was the bands that could be heard playing at every corner - sometimes multiples in the same plaza! I lost count of how many we saw, but I'm sure it was at least 15...and they all sounded amazing! The music was upbeat and fun and had everybody dancing.

People were also walking around with bags of paper confetti and throwing it everywhere, so the streets were covered with it. We found a huge pile on the ground and had a confetti fight in the middle of the street, which was hilarious but I'm still picking the little pieces of paper out of my hair and clothes :P

confetti, confetti everywhere!

right before the confetti fight started

Most of my pictures didn't turn out quite right, but we did manage to get a picture with a guy dressed as a Mountie, complete with moose antlers:

#ohcanada

Festivals like this always bring back some of my few memories of living in Germany as a little kid. I remember dressing up and getting candy and I feel like I should remember the confetti, but sometimes it's hard to draw the line between actual memories and my imagination. And I never really thought much about this, but I think it's true that a part of me still recognizes Germany as "home," and even though I don't remember much from living there, every once in awhile that part of me awakens and makes a connection to something long forgotten.

Anyways, today was amazing and if you're ever in Switzerland/Germany/Austria at this time of year, you should definitely go out and join in the Karneval celebrations!