Karneval (Fasnet)

All over Germany it is tradition to celebrate Carnival (Karneval) or Fasnet.  It is called different things depending on the area.  Fasnet is a dialect shortcut for Fastnacht which is the night before the fast for Lent begins. This is when Karneval concludes. This celebration is a big deal here!  People dress up in costumes and it reminded us of Halloween in America.  Karneval actually begins the 11th day of the 11th month (November), but nothing much happens until after January 6th. Then the parades begin. Some believe the parades and revelry began as a way to scare away winter and evil spirits.  Groups from almost all cities and villages go from town to town participating in that town's parade.  Each group has their own unique costume signifying their town and they wear hand carved wooden masks.  Many of these have been passed down from one generation to the next and some are quite elaborate.  Some towns have professional mask makers.  Most costumes are quite elaborate and some groups are quite large.  For weeks, these groups gather in different towns and participate in that town's parade.  They march in many, many parades.  All parades in Germany conclude by the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday.  The Parade in Ravensburg was on Monday, February 12.  We planned to go with our friend, Corinna Tonoli, because she insisted we needed to view this big part of German culture.  We were just going to find a place on the street, but then our friends, Vera and Janos Stevens, from our Branch, invited us to join with them and their family at their daughter's home right in the city on the parade route.  They have a balcony overlooking the street and we could even watch from inside if we were too cold. They also provided warm and delicious food and drinks!  Some of their family dressed up as well. The parade was huge and went for almost 4 hours.  We didn't watch the entire parade, but what we saw was really fun!  Corinna and I went down to the street, where some of the family was watching, for a closer view.  Some of the parade participants will try to involve the crowd by messing up their hair and putting handfuls of confetti in their hair and coats.  I was one of those caught by one of these scoundrels!

Bob watching from the balcony.

Diane and Bob with some of the Stevens' family.

Corinna Tonoli and Flora in the pack on front.

Janos and Vera Stevens

This guy surprised me!

Some of the Stevens' family.

The Temple and Bern

We had a wonderful visit to the temple in Switzerland in January.  We left very early to meet our friends, Jorg and Gerda in Austria, and then rode with them to the temple.  As we walked to the temple, I noticed a group of missionaries coming from the other direction.  What a thrill!  I raised my arms in delight and noticed one of the missionaries do the same thing.  I realized it was our former District Leader who had been transferred to Zurich!  We hurried to greet this group and snapped a quick photo.  There were 15 Elders and 4 Sisters who joined us on the 10:30 session.  We always enjoy associating with the missionaries, and this was a very special experience.  The session was in Italian, so we all wore headsets.  We discovered later that this was the first time for a young Italian woman who had been called to serve as a missionary.  Her boyfriend was with her.  He has already served a mission and will now wait for her to serve.  We were impressed with their faithfulness and dedication to serve the Lord.  It is also a sweet love story.

Gerda, Diane, Elder Ormsby, Bob

Gerda and Jorg Stubbe

Although the temple is called the Bern Switzerland Temple, it is actually located in Zollikofen.  The capital city of Bern is located a little bit south.  This temple is special because it is the first temple built by the church outside of North America and Hawaii. It is also the first temple to use a film to teach temple instruction in different languages.
Whenever we've attended the temple, we've done two sessions and then headed directly back home.  On this occasion, since it was a nice day, our friends offered to show us the city of Bern.  We were grateful and took them up on their offer.  We drove the short distance to Bern and parked the car and then walked into the old city.  It was cold but we loved seeing this beautiful ancient city that dates back to the 12th century.  It is built around a bend in the Aare River and is considered the gateway to the Alps.

Notice the beauty of the Alps in the background of these two photos.

This is the house where Albert Einstein developed the theory of relativity.