Sechseläuten

This is pretty late, but I had to share about this funny Swiss holiday.

Sechseläuten is a spring holiday in the city of Zurich just like the American Groundhog Day.  But if you ask me, I'd say the idea of burning a snowman to welcome the spring/summer is quite hilarious and creative.  It's usually on the 3rd Monday of April.  It's also known as the Burning of the Böögg (or snowman).  A giant snowman is constructed with explosives placed in the head.  It's placed right in downtown Zurich.  There are parades with people dressed up in historic and folkloristic costumes, all 26 guilds in costumes each with a band and horse drawn floats, and a ceremonial galloping of horses around the huge bonfire.  In the parades, they also hand out the most beautiful fresh flowers to people in the crowds.  Once the ceremony is over and the fire is still going, people will cook their own sausages on the fire.

I really wanted to go, but fighting the crowds and traffic with two little ones around dinner time didn't sound like a fun time.  Maybe next year :-)

The tradition has it that the time between the lighting and the head explosion indicates what summer will be like-a quick explosion means a nice sunny summer, the longer it takes, the worse the summer will be.

You can actually watch the entire thing here (part one with the parade):



And part two, with the snowman burning:



It took almost exactly 20 minutes to blow up, so I guess we're in for a bad summer.