February, the month that announces the soon arrival of the spring, with its slightly longer days and warmer temperatures, has come and is already going towards its end. In some countries, this is the period of one of the happiest and most colourful festivals of the year: carnival. When saying this word, it is impossible not to think of Rio the Janeiro, where millions of people travel every year to admire the beautiful shows performed on elaborate wagons, and to dance under the sun and the moon of this Brazilian landscape.
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Well, even though Rio will always be the hot spot of this crazy festival, also other countries own a tradition of celebrating it. One of these countries is the tiny, mountainous Switzerland. Honestly, I never understood why celebrations of carnival are so big in this little country: it is just clear to me that the tradition is well rooted inside the local culture. It lasts for around a month/ a month and a half, where in turns some of the major cities close the roads of the centre to let the crowds parade and enjoy the cheerfulness of this festivity.
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The carnival of Basel, in the German speaking part of Switzerland, is defined as the major folk festival in the country, with between 15.000-20.000 participants every year. Its particularity is that it starts at 4am: the lights of the city are turned off and the wagons start to parade into the darkness, with people watching and following them with lanterns in their hands.
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In the Italian part, every small village has its own carnival: the hamlets set a gazebo for a weekend, inside which people eat the typical rice and sausage and children throw confetti at each other. At night, young people (but also grown ups) rampage with the music inside their hilarious disguises. Given the cold weather of the period, the most common camouflages are animal shaped onesies: tigers, bears, monkeys, pandas,… There is basically a zoo of tipsy animals walking around the streets. However, if you scan carefully inside the crowd, you’ll see some very imaginative people dressed in a recognisable way. Personally, I have seen showers (complete with curtain and taps), skiers with skies and sticks walking inside the crowd, a guy in a hot-air balloon disguise and a girl dressed as the milky-way.
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The most important carnival in the Italian part is called “Rabadan” and takes place in Bellinzona. It starts on the Thursday night before the spring holiday for the schools, and it lasts until the next Tuesday. Several gazebos are set around the city: a parade sings and plays at the opening of the festival, anticipating the beginning of the party. Students usually go on Thursday and spend the whole night out, going directly to school the morning after, still inside their customs. On Sunday afternoon instead there is the parade which sees several wagons passing through the city, with dancers performing over them and a series of bands playing inside the show. At the end, the election of the best wagon and the best band takes place, assisted by the King and the Queen of carnival.
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Every year, thousands of people wait with anxiety the arrival of this cheerful and carefree festival, which brings people together and is the cause of many interesting stories between teenagers and young adults, some of them including memory lapses and selfies with strangers. Anyway, it is a good period to visit Switzerland as the event, besides being great fun, is a real manifestation of the tradition and culture of the country.