A Fabulously Fun Fasnet...

It's been a long time coming, but... I'm finally getting the pictures of Fasnet posted. Yay! :) Yes, I do realize that the Fasnet celebrations ended about 3 weeks ago... But, in my defense, we had ALOT of pictures and video to sift through! :)

Our last weekend of Fasnet proved to be an extremely fun time! I don't know what it is, but I'm absolutely fascinated by this festival... Maybe it's the festive atmosphere, or the amazing handmade costumes, or the tradition and history behind it, or the colorful decorations, or the fact that it's a great way to get through the cold, dreary days of winter... Whatever the case may be, I absolutely love it! :) So, my goal for this year, was to pack in as many parades and celebrations as we could. And, when all was said and done, we managed to get to four parades in three days, as well as a couple other Fasnet themed celebrations... Impressive! :) Overall, it was a great way to wrap up this year's Fasnet season!! (On a side note, after experiencing Fasnet again this year, and learning more about the history/traditions, I can honestly say that if I was a German, or was planning on living here permanently, I would probably belong to one of these Fasnet groups! :))

So, without further ado, here's our Fasnet 2011 experience...

Our first parade was on Friday night in a little town called Ochsenhausen...

Let's just say, it was "slightly" chilly that night! By the end of the parade I couldn't even feel my toes! :)

A very colorful music group...

The group of hexen from Brochenzell are awesome! They literally have pole vaulters in the parades! :) And, just an FYI... One of the guys holding the poles is Brian's coworker! :)

The following day, we headed downtown to check out Friedrichshafen's parade and festivities...

Here's Friedrichshafen's Narrenbaum tree. Every village puts up a tree such as this in the center of the village for the duration of Fasnet. They have a big ceremony to raise it, as well as to take it down at the end of the festival... Pretty cool!

Brian and Maciej warming up with some gluhwein before the parade... :)

A Hansele showing off his skills with his whip...

This little girl was part of one of the groups... She couldn't have been any older than 7, so it was quite funny to see her walk up to these spectators and launch two handfuls of confetti at them! :)

My friend's husband is part of this group! :)

The Brochenzell hexen... Again, one of the hexen holding the poles is Brian's coworker. He apparently only holds the poles nowadays... Considering he's broken his leg 3 times from doing the pole vault during these parades... Yikes!!

Dangerous as it may be, they're definitely cool to watch! :)

These costumes are too cute! :)

The odd couple... :)

They put this girl through a Christmas tree wrapper and wrapped her up like a tree! :)

The See Gockels... One of my favorites! :)

The Seewald-Kobald...

The See-Grendl...

Another favorite of mine! :)

The Buchorn Hexen...

Following Friedrichshafen's parade, we headed to Uberlingen to check out their festivities...

There is only one costume represented in Uberlingen's parade... These costumed men are called the Hansele, and it is a very exclusive group... Only men can be in this group, and they can only become members if they were born/grew up in the city of Uberlingen... As of last count, there were over 700 men in this group! Crazy!!

The special thing about the Hansele is that they have these whips that they whip around and crack during the parades. They also have a long, black nose that has a scented, felt like tip at the end. They come up to spectators (typically women) and rub the tip of their nose all over the spectator's face... It's kind of creepy if you ask me! :) I had one guy come up and start brushing it on my face, and I had to take cover behind my friend in order to get away from him! :)

A Hansele showing off his whipping skills! :)

Larra and I at some Fasnet festivities after the parade...

The following afternoon, we headed to Meckenbeuren to check out our last parade of the weekend! :) Out of all the parades we've been to, I think this one was my favorite! :)

We stood in a great location... Which meant that Brian's camera stood out very well... Needless to say, many of the characters had fun with Brian and his camera! :)

These two hexen were hamming it up for the crowd! :)

Lots and lots of confetti!! I like how they used an old baby buggy as a container to carry confetti... Nice! :)

The street at the half-way point in the parade... What a mess! :)

Obviously something was entertaining Larra and I... :)

These characters requested that Brian take their picture! :)

I got attacked by this guy!

However, the strangest thing about it was that he came up to me and immediately started talking to me in English. Now, being that I hadn't said anything to him to make him realize I was an English speaker, I'm thinking that he somehow knew me... However, I have yet to figure out who he is!! :)

And yet another one of my favorites! :)

Lots of feathers!! :)

Right after we were attacked by a hexen with confetti! :) Do you know how long it takes to get that much confetti out of your hair and clothes?! Ugh! I think we're still vacuuming it up!! :)

Me attempting to get my hat back from this character... Lovely! :)

She was passing out some candy to Larra and I...

This is such a cool costume!

This contraption was basically a large noise maker... Very loud!

This poor girl was grabbed and rolled in confetti...

I can't even imagine how long it took her to get that mess cleaned up! :)

Posing for Brian...

A very typical scene... Hexen carrying handfuls of confetti! :)

This was a pretty cool motorcycle that they were driving around on! :)

One of the signs of Fasnet... Lots and lots of cloth strips hanging throughout the towns/villages... Every city has lines upon lines of cloth strips (in every size, color, and pattern) hanging during Fasnet... It's so bright and cheery! :)

Decorated for Fasnet...

The aftermath of the parade...

Every town/village that hosts a parade looks like this afterwards. There's tons of confetti, leaves, confetti, hay, (and did I mention confetti?! :)) littering the streets. But, you know you're in Germany, when you walk through about an hour after the parade ends and the streets are already cleaned and spotless! :)