This year, the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel is the main theme of the three-day Fasnacht, the Swiss German word for carnival.
Keystone-SDA
Select your language
Generated with artificial intelligence.
Listening: Basel carnival kicks off with early morning march
At the stroke of 4am on Monday, the street lights went out in Basel's city centre for the carnival kick-off, known as Morgenstreich. In dry weather, the streets and squares were transformed into a sea of lanterns, accompanied by the sounds of piccolos and drums.
This content was published on
2 minutes
Keystone-SDA
Deutsch
de
Basel taucht mit mildem Morgenstreich in die dreitägige Fasnacht
Original
“Morgestraich onwards, march!” went the chorus after the bells rang out, followed by the sound of drums and piccolos. The Morgenstreich always begins with the march of the same name.
Thousands of carnival revellers paraded through the streets and alleyways with their instruments and head lanterns on their “larva” behind the large procession lanterns.
The carnival revellers dress in “Charivari costumes”, that is, with individual outfits and masks. The Guggenmusik bands and float cliques will join them for the big parade in the afternoon.
More
More
Swiss carnivals – a riot of colour, noise and tradition
This content was published on
The Swiss have been letting their hair down this month to mark the colourful carnival season.
In the darkened city centre, tens of thousands of onlookers stood in temperatures of around 8°C and watched the spectacle of carnival lanterns and drum and piccolo marches. The first traffic jams of cliques soon formed in the narrow streets.
The morning march also gave a first impression of the subjects that the cliques play out during the three days of festivities. This year, the Eurovision Song Contest in Basel is the main theme. Another theme is the centenary of the birth of Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguely.
The carnival will take over Basel for three days. On Monday afternoon, the parade once again will attract tens of thousands of onlookers to the city. A total of 11,485 people in 442 units are registered for this year’s parade on Monday and Wednesday.
Adapted from German with DeepL/gw
This news story has been written and carefully fact-checked by an external editorial team. At SWI swissinfo.ch we select the most relevant news for an international audience and use automatic translation tools such as DeepL to translate it into English. Providing you with automatically translated news gives us the time to write more in-depth articles.
If you want to know more about how we work, have a look here, if you want to learn more about how we use technology, click here, and if you have feedback on this news story please write to english@swissinfo.ch.
Popular Stories
More
Life & Aging
Zurich: how the world capital of housing shortages is tackling the problem
Living longer: What do you think about the longevity trend?
The longevity market is booming thanks in part to advances in the science of ageing. What do you think of the idea of significantly extending human lifespan?
Basel prepares 700 volunteers for the Eurovision Song Contest
This content was published on
Around 320 people took part in one of the two official information events for the Eurovision Song Contest (ESC) in Basel on Friday.
More Swiss soldiers involved in accidents during training in Austria
This content was published on
The Swiss army has reported various accidents involving Swiss soldiers during the exercise “TRIAS 25” in Austria. Some have led to hospitalisations.
Swiss court rules vegan meat substitutes can’t use animal names
This content was published on
Vegan meat substitutes may not bear animal names such as “planted.chicken” according to a ruling by the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.
Swiss cantons spared duty to create new traveller transit sites
This content was published on
Swiss cantons will no longer be formally obliged by the government to create new transit sites for the travelling community.
Swiss politicians bemoan limited access to EU treaty details
This content was published on
Protests that only a few Swiss parliamentarians will be able to read the contents of a new agreement negotiated with the EU.
This content was published on
For the first time, most Swiss residents favour withdrawing their pension pot as a lump-sum over regular annuity payments.
You can find an overview of ongoing debates with our journalists here . Please join us!
If you want to start a conversation about a topic raised in this article or want to report factual errors, email us at english@swissinfo.ch.