Narri! Narro!

You are probably wondering what kind of nonsense I am using for my title this time! Don't worry...it really does make sense..in a fun nonsensical kinda way! It is the funfilled time before Lent (depending on where you live you may call it Carnival, Mardis Gras, Fasching, Fastnacht...) and that is what you hear the people in and around the parade shouting to one another. It is different in different places, when we went to parades in Mannheim we would all shout "Ahoi!" at the floats and clowns, and in Heidelberg most people yell "Hellau", but in the Black Forest where we went for Fasching this year they yell "Narri! Narro!" back and forth. We drove down into the Black Forest Sunday morning and came upon 3 or 4 different parades in the villages that we went through. Each town or village has it's own traditional "Fools" or "Narren" as they call them. The costumes and masks that they wear are specific and never vary. We saw witches, animals, and other folk characters of all sorts. The towns were decorated with streamers with colorful strips of cloth tied to them and crisscrossing the streets and many of the businesses and homes had flags with a picture of the local "Narren" depicted on it. Before we checked into our guest house we stopped in the town of Villigen and noticed a group of people gathering around the town hall (Rathaus) and waited to see what would happen. As it started to get dark a band carrying torches came and chanted for the mayor to bring the key out. He finally came out onto the balcony and turned the key to the city over to the Narren so the celebrations could begin.



Monday we went to the town of Schramberg to join the thousands of other visitors to watch the "Da-Bach-Na-Fahrt" where 40 groups float their decorated, themed rafts down the river that flows through the town. We were a few hours early and got a good spot on one of the bridges spanning the river so we could get some photos. What a fun spectacle it was! Not all the participants made it through without falling in the water, and lots more came close to capsizing or getting stuck on the banks.






Once the boats had all gone by everyone walked over a block to the main street where we assembled to watch the big parade. Groups of Narren from villages all around march through the streets and throw candy, confetti, straw, oranges, and just have a great time playing with the spectators. They don't stay in the middle of the street either, we had several of them sneaking around behind the crowd and startling people back there. I even watched one climb up a makeshift ladder that his cohorts were carrying and climb in a window to tease the people watching from what they THOUGHT was a safe vantage point! We had a wonderful time and if you are anywhere near the Black Forest during this time of year I would DEFINATELY make it a must see event.