Carnival, Italo-Swiss style


After last year’s lackluster parade in Zurich, I was beginning to think the Swiss just didn’t know how to do carnival. I mean, a correct carnival celebration does involve a certain amount of coming out of oneself, public silliness, and, (gasp!) messiness. Oh yes, I’ve heard about how in Basel there is ‘craziness’ in the form of costumed people telling jokes in local dialect in restaurants starting at 4 AM, but somehow that doesn’t exactly scream ‘good party’ to me (although if anyone wants to volunteer to interpret said Swiss German jokes for me one year, I’m there). Shouldn’t celebrations last until 4 AM, not start then?

Luckily the Swiss redeemed themselves this weekend in Bellinzona, the home of a five-day carnival celebration called Rabadan. The parade was a million times better than Zurich’s, with floats dedicated to all kinds of important themes, including (but not limited to) the Swiss Post, Pluto (the cartoon dog, not the former planet), Playboy, CSI, Scooby Doo, and EPO (a form of doping for cyclists, which I had never heard of before – see, it was educational, too!).

The celebrations include parades, confetti, marching bands, costumes, fried foods, drinking, silly-string, and more parades. Sunday’s parade went from 1:30 until around 4:30, after which the various floats and marching bands dispersed to various points around the old town, where they hosted dance parties or gave spontaneous concerts. The streets were covered in confetti, and the mood was light and fun. The woman behind the desk of one of the museums we went to lamented that carnevale made everyone crazy, but we didn’t find it to be such a bad thing. After all, it was only crazy by Swiss standards.

OK, so the costumes weren’t quite as beautiful or elegant as those at carnevale in Venice, but it also wasn’t as painfully crowded as Venice is during this time of year. Plus, Bellizona is a comfortable 2.5-hour train ride from Zurich. I highly recommend Rabadan to anyone who needs a dose of real carnival fun (and don’t worry, you can even be back in time for Zurich’s Fasnacht, which isn’t until the weekend after Fat Tuesday).

More about our weekend in Ticino coming soon…

5 thoughts on “Carnival, Italo-Swiss style”

  1. I just love Ticino. Last year when we went to Lugano I just had the feeling that I could live there quite happily for ever. All the atmosphere of Italy with the order of Switzerland. And the lakes, my God, the lakes! Blissful. Have never been to Bellinzona but will try to at some point this year.

  2. Hi! I’m doing a daily photo blog (with some text, but not too much) from a small village near Brugg and Baden and I’ve been writing about Fasnacht celebrations around the area. They really vary from place to place in Switzerland (as many things do.) It’s naturally taken more seriously in the Catholic areas, and Protestant places like Zürich are just “imposters”, really. A friend from a Catholic canton was amused to hear that ZH even tries to have a Fasnacht parade.

    Baden’s parade was alright (I hadn’t expected much nor do I have any Carnival experience), though there wasn’t much parody. On the other hand, we didn’t go to the Schnitzelbank the night before: apparently that’s when they do the skits making fun of recent events and so on, or things like the Guggenmusik Monsterkonzert.

    By the way, regarding Epo, I wince to hear of it in relation to doping as it’s such an important drug for people with anemia caused by cancer or kidney disease. I hate these dopers and their enablers. Even the Wiki article spends more words on the abuse than the life-saving aspect.

  5. Ms Mac – Bellinzona was amazing! Definitely worth a trip (pictures coming soon).

    Z – I had no idea EPO could be used for good instead of evil. And my education continues… I’ll check out your photo blog!

    Jessica – Thanks:) Funny video – I loved the drunk Germans in the NYC bar.

    CS – Looks beautiful! Thanks for the tip.

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