On March 3, we went to the Carnival (Fasnacht) parade in Wil. Lots of people were dressed up, there were fun costumes, but it was mostly monsters - some with glowing eyes. The parade started with a man reading a prepared speech from the third floor window of a large lit up impressive building. Interspersed with his speech was music (da da daht da da daht) and the crowd in the square jumping in time with it. The speech lasted for a long time (an hour? - we went for a beer and french fries after we got the gist of what was going on) and was followed by a parade that anyone could join.
Apparently the Fasnacht festivals vary depending on where you are, even towns 20 km apart can have very different traditions. In some cantons, the festival has pagan origins and is meant to drive away evil spirits, which is clearly what this Fasnacht was in Wil (in addition to being a nice chance for young men to drink heavily).
A lot of people had these "balloons" tied to strings on a stick. It wasn't until we were leaving a restaurant, where the patrons had considerately left their balloons at the door, that we were able to confirm that they were actually made of an animal's intestines. The monsters seemed to get a kick out of waiving them in your face, and then later the children had fun bouncing them from their sticks on the ground - they made a nice loud and deep bouncing sound.
Fiona was also intrigued by them...
RMS
Glowing eyes-well done! Animal guts, eww.
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