Atherton Family Notes

On the actual day called Fasnet here in southern Germany (Tuesday, March 4th), we went to Rottweil to see the Narrenumsprung. This word translates roughly as “the fool’s wild jumping around.” It is the big fool’s parade in Rottweil, and they had a lot of fools around to prove it!

The temperature was much lower at this parade than it was at the one in Villingen earlier. The parade itself was also much longer. There weren’t any floats either–this parade really was about the march of the fools through the town, harassing the spectators, making the children sing for candy, and generally being silly.

I almost hate to admit it, but I took 255 pictures during the parade (this is one of the benefits of a digital camera). I still had more than 200 pictures after I weeded out the ones that were blurry, or where I just completely missed the shot because the people kept moving while I was trying to line it up.

Anyway, here is a sample of some of the interesting photos I took.

This is the standard bearer at the beginning of the parade. His flag is the coat of arms of Rottweil, and behind him comes the flood of fools.

There was only one band actually in the parade. We were near the end of the parade route, so we didn’t know until later that in this parade, that most of the bands are actually stationed on platforms along the parade route. The spectators in these areas get to hear many songs by the same people.

As I mentioned in my message about Villingen’s parade, each town has its own particular masks that are used. Here is one of the Rottweiler fools giving candy to CeCe.

Carissa’s turn to get candy from a fool.

Another of the traditional Rottweiler masks. Incidentally, Rottweil is the town for which the Rottweiler dog breed is named. Maybe this mask gives you a hint why those dogs have a reputation for fierceness.

Also, on this particular mask, you can see the ribbons that are given to the participants each year. This fool has been in the parade since at least 1994. I saw some fools that had robbins from the early 80′s, and I am sure that some of these people have been participating for much longer.

Here’s a better picture of the same type of fool that was shown giving candy to CeCe above. Notice the intricate print on the costume and the bells he is wearing. These are standard parts of the Rottweiler costume. I think the specific outfits used in the parade are related to the traditional 12 guilds of Rottweil (the butchers, the bakers, etc.)

The bells themselves are pretty interesting because all of the fools jingle when they walk. They also do a little dance which causes even more jingling while trying to get the kids in the crowd to sing a traditional song.

The tune of the song that the kids sing is from a traditional German children’s song but with special words for Fastnet.

As I mentioned before, the fools spend much of their time harassing the crowd. People with cameras are favorite targets. Here is a fool offering to clean my lens with a furry tail attached to a long stick. Traditionally, the fools use these devices to “dust away the fool dust” from the spectators. Generally, the fools seem to find most of the “fool dust” that needs cleaning in people’s faces, especially kids.

The sticks are useful for other harrassments, too. Here, a fool has managed to steal the hat off someone’s head. The fools always give items they take back after a short time, but often not to the person he took it from!

A fool throwing candy to the crowd.

One of the other major variations of the fool’s costume in Rotweil.

After the parade was over, we walked to the main downtown area to look around. The Germans are generally very clean, and you rarely see litter, but on this day, following several days of round-the-clock partying, it was a different story. Candy wrappers and small bottles formerly containing various flavors of schnapps were everywhere.

Clearly, the people of Rottweil take this party seriously.

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