Lucerne Carnival opens with traditional ‘big bang’
The "Big Bang" opens the Lucerne Carnival
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Listening: Lucerne Carnival opens with traditional ‘big bang’
Lucerne Carnival opened on Thursday at 5am with the Urknall or 'big bang' over the lake. About 25,000 revellers loudly welcomed the start of the festivities.
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Der “Urknall” eröffnet die Luzerner Fasnacht
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The first few hours of the carnival were “very peaceful”, said police spokesman Yanik Probst. Shortly before the ‘big bang’, the lights around the lake were switched off. Accompanied by a small firework display, a bang then marked the start of the carnival and the first Guuggenmusigen began to play.
With its rousing Guggenmusik big bands and creative costumes, Lucerne’s six-day carnival opened on ‘Dirty Thursday’, the Thursday before Lent. Dirt also means grease in the Swiss-German dialect, and the name is a reference to the sausages eaten in Lucerne so that its predominantly Catholic population could build up reserves of fat before fasting begins during Lent.
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Swiss carnivals – a riot of colour, noise and tradition
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The Swiss have been letting their hair down this month to mark the colourful carnival season.
This year ‘Dirty Thursday’ celebrations are in the hands of the Zunft zu Safran, the former grocers’ guild, which has existed for 600 years. Dirty Thursday also marks the start of carnival in other parts of Switzerland, which ends on Wednesday night.
Adapted from German by DeepL/ac
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