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As New Year celebrations end

Long-standing expatriates will have noticed that scarcely are the Christmas and New Year celebrations over than preparations for carnival (Fasnacht in Swiss German) begin.
 
Last Saturday the inhabitants of the village of Alosen in the municipality of Oberägeri started the long run-up to the pre-Lenten festival period which this year culminates with Shrove Tuesday and Ash Wednesday on the 21 and 22 February.
 
Music on the occasion was provided by the Papagenos in their new green tunics and the drummers in their orange and blue uniforms, not dissimilar to those of the Swiss Guard in the Vatican. Then there were the Tiroleans, a dancing troupe made up of men and young boys in their green, blue and claret-coloured uniforms with heavy bells on their belts which are carried high above their heads.
 
At the centre of this procession was Marco Meier, the president of the Fasnacht jesters in their bright red tails and top hats. He was accompanied by two 20-year-old Alosen residents, Nadia Schmid and Maya Rogenmoser, who then ceremoniously revealed this year's Fasnacht motto "Clean and Smile".
"We citizens of Alosen are going to clean our village so that every Legor will have to hide behind all the yellow pennants adorning the village."
 
The Legor is a reference to the court jester to Duke Leopold of Habsburg, who rested for a while in Oberägeri on 15 November 1315, before leading his troops from Zug over the Raten Pass to fight against the Schwyzer confederates.
 
Meier continued his speech in verse, making fun, for example, of the local Green party politician and former member of the National Council in Bern, Josef Lang, as well as of the SVP party "who had seen better days" (in a reference to the party's failure to secure a further member of their party to the Federal Council in Bern in the December elections). He also joked about the failure of the local council to secure the green light for a new lakeside promenade in Oberägeri, rejected as it was in a referendum, adding that the tennis courts there would be staying and that local dogs would still be able to go to their favourite place to relieve themselves.
 
The jocular speech provoked much laughter and applause after which the Tiroleans danced another round prior to the procession moving into the workshop of Hans Nussbaumer's building yard, where a film of last year's Fasnacht festivities were shown. The celebrations continued into the early hours of Sunday morning.
  


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