Chienbäse refers to a carnival event held in Liestal in the canton of Basel-Landschaft on the Sunday evening following Ash Wednesday. During the event, burning “brooms” made of bundled pinewood slats, weighing between 20 and 100 kg, are carried through Liestal’s old town. The highlights of the procession are the approximately 20 fire wagons – iron wagons each carrying several cubic metres of burning wood. The flames blaze particularly high after passing through Liestal’s Obertor.

The event attracts tens of thousands of spectators from across Switzerland and neighbouring countries. Chronicles record that bonfires were already blazing on the hills of Burg and Weisse Fluh above Liestal more than 200 years ago on Spark Sunday. Since 1902, torchlight processions have been held through Liestal as part of the carnival celebrations. However, the Chienbäse procession itself was not established until after the First World War by the Liestal baker Eugen Stutz, initially as a small procession with schoolchildren and, from 1924, on a larger scale.