LUCERNE - Guggenmusik bands took over the old town on Saturday, a week and more before Basel's later calendar. Brass bounced off the water near the Kapellbruecke. Police described the crowd as heavy and the mood as wet rather than hostile.
Hotels on the lake were full of Swiss guests more than long-haul tour groups. Stallholders selling flour and drinks said they would take a rainy Fasnacht over a dry empty one.
Two carnivals, two clocks
Catholic carnival sits before Ash Wednesday, which falls on 18 February this year. Basel waits until the Monday after. Lucerne does not wait. The later Morgenstreich report is a different instrument in a different key.