Feb. 20 (UPI) — The famed three-day carnival in Basel, Switzerland, got underway at the traditional start time of 4 a.m. on Monday, with a lights-out parade through the city’s oldest neighborhood.
The parade — known as Basler Fastnacht, or Basel’s Shrove Tuesday carnival — kicks off an annual celebration that ends exactly 72 hours later.
Costumes, simultaneous marching parades, music, confetti and a less intense children-only parade are among the event’s highlights.
Tens of thousands lined Basel’s streets in darkness waiting for the carnival’s opening parade, called “Morgastraich.” Streetlights went dark and a lantern-lit procession began.
Parade floats satirized current events and world figures, including President Donald Trump and North Korea.
This year, the event has a new distinction. It was added last year to UNESCO’s List of Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It is also the last of Switzerland’s pre-Easter carnivals– and as a Protestant celebration, the country’s only non-Catholic festivity.
