If you’re in southern Germany in the early months of the year you might just find yourself lucky enough to witness one of the most fantastically strange events the country has to offer: The Narrensprung Festival
When the parade started it was pretty surreal. Somewhere between 20 and 100 people wearing the exact same costume and creepy mask would start making their way through the town, jumping around like fools…
What on earth is a Narrensprung?
“Narrensprung” translates to Fool’s jump in English, which makes total sense if you’re able to see the parade which I highly highly HIGHLY making a priority if it’s possible to see. The parade itself is one of the silliest things I’ve ever been witness to. Just thinking about it makes me a laugh a little bit and I’m honestly having a hard time writing this in a timely manner because I get bogged down giggling at pictures or reading more about the history of the carnival.
My wife and I decided to stay the night in the town of Lindau, which rests on Lake Constance in southern Germany. The lake is pretty cool because Germany, Austria and Switzerland all border the lake so on a clear day you can see it all. We weren’t planning on staying in the town long. We had driven in from Frankfurt the afternoon before and wanted to drive over to Oberammergau early enough that Sunday to enjoy the town. While we were checking out of our hotel the woman at the front desk recommended we stick around for the parade that was about to happen. If we stuck around we would have to kill 2 hours somehow, which is easy enough just wandering around or finding a bar to pop in for a drink or 3. Earlier that morning we were a little confused at what we kept seeing out the window, which faced the train station. Every once in a while we would hear bells, and I mean A TON of bells jingling. There were people wearing what looked to be ghillie suits, the things that soldiers wear when they’re hiding in shrubs and what not. Anyway we decided to take her advice on sticking around and oh boy I’m glad we did.
We posted up in a bar facing the lake and saw hundreds of people in large groups wearing these silly costumes. We still had no idea what was going on. Right before noon we walked over to a street where people were beginning to gather on each side. Oh, it’s a parade! When the parade started it was pretty surreal. Somewhere between 20 and 100 people wearing the exact same costume and creepy mask would start making their way through the town, jumping around like fools (hence: Narrensprung) yelling things at the crowd that yelled back, and being generally rowdy. Behind them another group would follow, and so on and so on.
Whatever is happening is bananas
We still had no idea what was going on but were having a fantastic time watching. After a little bit of shifting through the crowd to be right on the street we found ourselves next to an amazing older couple from a nearby town, and they gave us the entire rundown – in fantastic English I might add. The festival has it’s roots in the idea of scaring away the winter, so they dress up in silly costumes and creepy but elaborate wooden masks, some covered in bells, and jump around through the streets. The festival itself is a few days long but the highlight is the parade.
Lindau ended up being the perfect place to experience this event for the first time because of the lake. Instead of the event only being for the people of Lindau, towns from closeby in Austria and Switzerland would send their “guilds” and represent their area, or something. The older couple also explained what all the chanting was about. Each guild has a specific saying that they yell out and you’re supposed to yell something back at them. How do you know what to yell back? Well they had a handy program that showed where each guild was from – in order – and what the chants are. We noticed that there was usually a ringleader in the front of each guild holding a sign with a few words scribbled on it, which was the chant. Our favorite was:
Fools: OPAAAA!
Crowd: OHHHH!
I think the parade went on for around 2 hours, and though it was pretty cold out there were several little stands where you could buy German snacks or beer, though the general silliness kept us pretty glued to the parade. Some guilds would throw out candy to the crowd. Some would grab random people from the crowd and carry them a block away or so. One guild had what I can best describe as a metal carriage with a single seat in the middle that spun around at the speed it was being pushed/pulled. They would grab a random person from the crowd and put them on the seat and spin them around for a while. The entire thing was so ridiculous that as I mentioned earlier, it is pretty hard to put into words.
We are going back to Germany again in early 2019 and have decided to plan our trip around the Lindau parade which takes place March 3rd. Can’t wait.
Leave a Reply