Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht

The Swabian-Alemannic Fastnacht, Fasnacht (in Switzerland) or Fasnat/Faschnat (in Vorarlberg), is the pre-Lenten carnival in Alemannic folklore in Switzerland, southern Germany, Alsace and Vorarlberg.

Popular etymology often links Fastnacht (in Mainz also Fassenacht, in Switzerland Fasnacht, in Swabia Fasnet, Fasent) with fasten ("to fast") – allegedly from celebrations on the eve preceding fasting. In the beginning of the 20th century it was a common assumption that the tradition has its root in the pre Christian rituals. So there was an assumption Comparison of dialect variants however yields an OHG *fasanaht, with an element fasa- of unclear meaning. A likely derivation looks to PIE pwo- "purify" (cognate to pava-mana), or alternatively to Middle High German vaselen "prosper, bud", and interprets the festival as a fertility rite. But historians around Werner Mezger refuted all those theories, and showed that the name came from fasten ("to fast") and the tradition is Christian. They also showed that a lot of the ritus came from the civitas diaboli model of the Catholic church.

Fasching (MHG vaschanc or vaschang) is related, probably originally with a second element -gang instead of -nacht.

Fastnacht is held in the settlement area of the Germanic tribes of the Swabians and Alemanns, where Swabian-Alemannic dialects are spoken. The region covers German Switzerland, the larger part of Baden-Württemberg, Alsace, south-western Bavaria and Vorarlberg (western Austria).

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