Carnival in Bern

The carnival in Bern, Switzerland (German: Berner Fasnacht) is an annual pre-Lenten festival in the Swabian-Alemannic tradition.

[5] During the 16th century, the Reformation caused a rift between the Protestant and Catholic citizenry of Bern, and according to scholars the city considered keeping to the Catholic Church as late as 1526;[6] however, during this period playwrights used the opportunity to present an anti-Catholic message during the carnival (or shrovetide) Lenten celebrations.

He wrote about Cardinal Anselm von Hochmuth (Haughtiness):[9] "Mightily I have enjoyed it,/For Christian blood to me is dear,/And that's why a red hat I wear."

"[10] Beginning in the mid-1520s there appear to have been incidents of sporadic violence in Bern during carnival which may have shown the tension of the Reformation period.

Records show that plays with a serious religious subject were put on as early as the 1530s in Bern, with Hans von Rüte's Abgötterie (1531) possibly being the first.

In Gideon (1540) the Jews are depicted as losing to their enemies for seven devastating years because they adopted idolatry and abandoned God.

Gideon eventually defeats all the enemies of the Israelites, a recurring historical theme, but first he has to destroy the altar of Ba'al.

The bear spends exactly 111 days in Prison Tower for its winter sleep, before being awakened by "Ychüblete" (drumming) and released.