Masquerade in Switzerland and Germany

I would like to send to you a few pics about an event which takes place in my home town roughly every 10 years. It is a regional meeting of masks coming from the German parts of Switzerland and from southern Germany. It was great, there were some 60 groups, most of them with real, carved wooden masks. I think that the event proves that masking culture is well alive here north of the Alps. By the way, the photo with that mask wearing a black-red-white hat and cloth is a very well-known figure around here, the so-called “Blätz”, which means simply “an old piece of tissue”. This, because in older times, the figure wore cloth made of old pieces of tissue. It is a very old figure, stemming from the old Harilo-King, the leader of the army of the dead, which mutated into the Italian Arlecchino. The Italian theater with the Arlecchino gradually went north to the Alps, mutating into the figure of the Harlekin, a funny figure like a clown, which itself mutated into several Fasnacht characters. One of these is this “Blätz” on the photo. Chris, 1103

Chris also sent two other masks that were in the big parade. It is nice to see how European mask traditions are still alive and well. Bob