Well, it's Fasching
time again - Southwestern Germany's peculiar mix of Catholic Carnival
and ancient pagan Rites of Spring all rolled into one. Where we live,
in the deepest, darkest part of Germany - the Black Forest - it goes on
for the whole week leading up to Lent (falling some time at the end of
February, beginning of March, depending on the church calendar for that
year). Revelers adorn themselves with elaborately wood-carved masks, which
are passed down from generation to generation, and are transformed into
witches and devils, forest trolls and swamp ghosts, who will take to the
streets to "sweep" winter away, shouting, Naree! Naro!
Alte
Hexe - Horb, Germany
Photo: Marcy Jarvis
First stop? The Hexen Tanz (Witch's
Dance), held in the town of Sulz each year, on Shmutzigen Donnerstag
("Dirty Thursday" - the last Thursday before Lent). Here you
can kick off the week's festivities by the light of the moon as witches
fly down out of the mountains on broomstick and into the waiting throngs
in the market place. Next, the Narren (fools) bound in with bells
on, brandishing sticks piled high with soft pretzels for the Brezelsegen
(the blessing of the pretzels). If they like the looks of you, you may
get one to eat.
On Fasching Sunday, head for the historic
town of Rottweil (where Rottweiler dogs originated) to see the Narrenzunft
(Fool's Guild) file past dressed in the town's colors of black and yellow,
jumping in rhythm and dusting people off with feather dusters to wake
them from their winter's hibernation, all the while making this eerie
laughing sound, Hu! Hu! Hu!" which is, at once, both funny
and spooky.
Feel free to dress for the occasion, if
you're brave enough to take what they'll dish out. The first year I went,
I wore a coonskin cap, which the fools enjoyed knocking off with their
dusters, as well as a papier-mache Japanese hyottoko mask. This
mask, I should explain, is actually the male half of a couple's set; my
husband's father, who lives in Japan, had sent it at New Years. It features
bulging eyeballs and a jutting prosthetic chin-like mouth with two red
dots painted on it where lips should be. This "fire blowing mouth"
is supposed to be a symbol of humor and good luck in Japan, but looks
remarkably like one of these Narren masks. Let's just say I got
more attention than I bargained for.
Marcy Jarvis in Japanese Mask with daughter
Katchen as kleine Hexe
Rottweil,
Germany Photo: Nat Jarvis
By the time it is over, you will have the
feeling that the same people have all just been going around the block
and reappearing again through the Schwarzes Tur, the fabled "Black
Gate" of the city. That's okay, just make your way to the nearest
Konditorei for kaffee und kuchen - Black Forest Cake, anyone?
Or better yet, try Fastnet-Chüechlie, the diamond shaped fried
dough, coated in sugar, which are only made at this time of year. Or perhaps
a pot of Gulasch will hit the spot. Whatever your pleasure, fortify
yourself, because come nightfall, more than 3000 people, many of them
wearing traditional blue Bauernkittel (Farmer's smocks) this time
around, will make their way through the town in a torchlight procession.
On Rosen Monntag, ("Rose Monday"
- the Monday preceding Ash Wednesday) make your way up to the town of
Horb for their big parade. Here, the children dress up and come equipped
with sacks, because witches, devils and castle dwarves will be along to
throw candy -
Castle
Dwarves - Horb, Germany Photo:
Marcy Jarvis
it's the closest thing we have to an American
Halloween but more so. The witches circle hapless onlookers and
hoist them high on a teepee of gnarly brooms, then climb on top of each
other to form a pyramid that rises up to a height of five witches off
the ground. They terrorize young and old by taking off spectator's boots
and running away with them. Even those who opt to watch from a higher
vantage point aren't safe; the witches will scale the walls of the stucco
and half timbered Fachwerk houses that line these streets to menace
the onlookers in the open windows, sometimes climbing into people's living
rooms!
Tannenzapfengeister
- Horb, Germany Photo: Marcy
Jarvis
Tannenzapfengeister (Pine cone ghosts),
fetchingly clothed in hand-stitched costumes constructed of overlaid shingles
of felt, will switch you with their branches, alternately used as brooms,
as they pass by. Pig men work the crowds, shaking pig bladder balloons
that REALLY stink, reminiscent of the way lepers and plague victims once
announced their arrival in these medieval villages. Billy goat men spring
through the streets grabbing the women: spanking them, carrying them off,
sometimes forcing them to drink "goat sperm," (which as it turns
out, is really just schnapps) and even rolling them around on the ground
in mock rape - ancient pagan fertility rites in action. (The prettiest
ones are really in for it.)
Ziegemänner
- Horb, Germany
Photo: Marcy Jarvis
Catholics in this region long ago incorporated
such pagan ideas in order to spice up their pre-Lenten festivities and
win converts. If it all sounds a bit threatening, it is. Yet it's
also hilariously exhilarating and fun, once you get into the spirit of
it. When one towering devil tried to grab my five-year-old last year,
she gamely hid behind me and held fast. He resorted to making off with
her bag of candy, but returned it shortly. Even my less than enthusiastic
teenaged son, who hadn't wanted to come, had to laugh when a snaggle-toothed
hag in raggedy skirts deviled him, tying his shoelaces together in a hopeless
snarl when she didn't succeed in dragging him away.
Böse
Hexe - Horb, Germany
Photo: Marcy Jarvis
Afterwards, follow the Folterknechts
(torturers), who wander the town in bands, demonstrating their whipping
techniques, up to the ancient torture tower at the top of the hill. It's
only open to the public this one day each year. You can climb the Turm
and peek into the private club on its top floor, listen to their drinking
songs.
If gentility is what you crave, return to
Rottweil for a no less intriguing experience on Faschingsdienstag,
also knows as Fastnachts, (Shrove Tuesday) when the aristocratic
Federhannes (feathered johns) and Franzenkleider (fringed ladies)
make their haughty appearance. Afterwards, when everyone pushes the heavy
wooden masks back onto the tops of their heads, they create a colorful
sea of amusing double-faced characters.
In the pre-dawn hours of Aschermittwoch
(Ash Wednesday), Rottweilers are still going strong and lining up
for the amazing Narrensprung (Fool's jump). It's a grand finale
of jesters leaping through the air and ringing their bells. They must
train all year long to be ready for this - it could be its own Olympic
event.
Throughout the region, communities hold
Fasching celebrations of one stripe or another, although, town to town,
the traditions can differ greatly. Sample a few and you will see how the
geography of the Black Forest fostered unique cultural variations in villages
just a few kilometers apart.
The three towns mentioned here can be found
to the southwest of Stuttgart, Germany, just off Autobahn 81.
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