Fasnacht: Night 1 - Chinebäse

Let me start by saying, I officially have never experienced anything like this. 

Fasnacht is basically "Carnival of Basel". It's about 3 days & nights of celebrations of varying times, participants and activities.  I found the experience to be thrilling as the city of Basel truly came to life and you could see a true local passion for the festival. There's no real way to describe it other than to walk through the events. This is going to require multiple posts.

The week of celebrations actually begins in the outer suburbs, town of Liestal, on Sunday evening at an event called Chinebäse. This is NOT a baby friendly event, so monster & I sat this one out while Matt went with a buddy instead.

While I can't exactly explain what is happening here, Matt described it as rolling bonfires. Mainly large wooden floats / torches being set a flame and paraded / rolled through the town center. 

The gates & arches (through which the burning floats passed) where first doused with water. Safety first! He arrived home covered in at ash and with his eyes a little red. I can't imagine why!  

The conversation with every American we talked to since goes something like this,
Friend: "Did you go to fire thing in Liestal?"
Matt: "Yes! It was crazy!"
Friend: "There is NO Way that is safe. How has that city not already burnt to the ground?!"
Matt: "No way would that be allowed in America"

See for yourself:

WHAT?!?!

Ugh, I can't figure out how to rotate this. Any Blogger experts?  ;)