Hello! Just a bit of Schnitzelbank trivia. The word is still very
much in use in Switzerland, especially the city of Basel, where every
year during Carnival [Fasching] in February and March, small groups
of singers go from tavern to tavern singing their Schnitzelbank:
a few songs dealing humorously with some current affair theme.
They also hand out long strips of paper with the lyrics that many
people collect as a summary of the years events. They are written in
a local Swiss dialect so that outsiders have trouble understanding. (-:
Here is an example (if you speak German, see if you can understand!) :
http://www.schnitzelbankbasel.ch/neue1/Fasnacht_05/Banggomat_05.html
Best wishes
Mike Moran
Basel
[ Here are more web sites with information in English about Fasching:
[ http://www.swissworld.org/dvd_rom/eng/customs_2003/content/carnival/fasnachtbasel.html
[ http://www.fasnachts-comite.ch/flash.html
[ http://www.fasnacht.ch/?pm_1=21&mid=21
[ -- Robbie
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