Greetings from Oberägeri Zug!

A complaint with a .

I am trying to watch Lord of the Rings here and the bastards have started a day early, I cannot hear a thing! This is terrible, it's the fifth song and nothing new from last year. The drummers seem not be to so drunk (enough) since you can sort of recognize a rhytm. The nicest thing is that the restaurant downstairs seems to be their local...

I really find Napalm Death classical music compared to this mess...

Anyway, remember to enjoy these almost 2 months of organised noise!

Pekka, please clarify: what has begun??? Some local Zug jamboree?

You will get to know this phenomenon for sure. Welcome to Fastnacht...

Oh lord, fastnacht time already?!!!

I educated myself from the local FASTNACHT SCHEDULE that came today. It says that it starts here tomorrow. These fellows are out of control and do not obey the rules!

They must not be Swiss

I always thought fastnacht started on the 11.11.at eleven o clock maybe It's there practice place.

Correct, as its also my anniversary, but the marching season starts on the 4th .... great excuse for the mullet tops to get out from behind their stammtisch drag their knuckles ...

Fastnacht also called Karneval is a pre-Lenten celebration for the the German speaking parts of Switzerland, Austria, and southern Germany. France also has their version. Just as the name implies, Fastnacht is the celebration of the upcoming Lenten fasting. It is a long celebration leading up to Ash Wednesday, Aschermittwoch. To many Americans, we call this Mardi Gras. If you've actually been down to New Orleans for it, you know that it starts in January when we eat King Cake.

It starts on either Jan 7th the day after the Epiphany, Dreikönige, or Nov 11, Elfter im Elften. It just depends where you are. Celebrations vary in each region.

Have fun with all the celebrations. Don't just complain about them, join them!

Again, why am I going to live in Geneva when I know all this German stuff already???

Will do. The good thing is, looking at the calendar, you really don't need to plan on joining anything. There's something going on every day.

To be honest, I'd like to try one of them drum sets...

Ooh where in Zug does this happen, Pekka?? Will there be stuff going on around 19th Jan? My folks are over and I need to entertain them!!

Check out this site, the calendar does not seem to have everything that the paper version does but you get the idea.

It looks very organised!

http://www.legor.ch/index2.html

The Links page looks good as well.

Fasnacht has terrible hangover memories for me...

You know Fasnacht season is here because Migros and Coop start stocking packs of those big poppadums covered in icing sugar.

Was in Einsiedeln in 2000 and was talking to a Swiss guy dressed as Braveheart. It was -18C and he was wearing a kilt! Respect!

The dates vary from area to area. In Baden and the surrounding places, it's from 31st of January to the 6th of February.

If you live right in the middle of where it happens, you aren't going to get much sleep that week.

You need to get out more.....perhaps you should join a Fasnacht clique...

good luck with that if you aren't Swiss. Heck, they don't even take you if you're not from Basel but from some other place in Switzerland...

Hmmm...I'm from the UK and have been in a Basel Fasnacht clique since 2005. I did Fasnacht 2006 in "Vortrab" and 2007 as a "Pfyffer". Performing at the Drummelifest last year was good fun too - excellent party afterwards.

Cheers,
Nick

Being a Napalm Death fan...well...this made me think of how interesting it would be to hear these guys doing Napalm Death covers in their style.......

I love fastnacht my brother and sister-in-laws and there 3 children are all in a group and they play fantastic music my children also love going to watch the groups.

This is what Gugge bands are for.

HTH.

Nick