Basel Carnival

Basel's carnival opens at precisely four in the morning, when the city's streetlights switch off and hundreds of illuminated lanterns and drum-and-piccolo groups called cliques step into the dark for the Morgestraich. Recognized by UNESCO in 2017, the three-day event runs on satire, with each clique designing a themed lantern skewering politics and local news. Daytime parades and confetti follow on Monday and Wednesday afternoons.

Basel's carnival runs on a schedule found nowhere else in the country: it begins at exactly four in the morning on the Monday after Ash Wednesday, when every streetlight in the old town is switched off and the Morgestraich opens with hundreds of illuminated lanterns and marching piccolo-and-drum groups called cliques stepping into the dark simultaneously.