The traditional Swiss holiday to celebrate the coming of Spring in Zurich is called Sechseläuten and occurs on the third Monday of every April. On that day, everyone who works in the Canton of Zurich has a half day (if you work in a different canton you're out of luck). Crowds assemble near Bellevueplatz down by Lake Zurich, with tall cans of beer and grilled bratwurst (and loads of other street food!). The weather was a fantastic 26 degrees Celsius (79 Fahrenheit), the sun was out and everybody was ready for Spring to start.
It was crowded, to say the least.
During the day, there is the parade of the 26 Zunfte (guilds - powerful trade groups that have now become private clubs) with over 3000 members! The guilds limit participation in the parade to its members, all men. Women are only there as honorary guests, and it reflects Switzerland's still male-dominated society. Despite Switzerland's fairly liberal stance on politics, women's rights have come slowly. Women couldn't vote in federal elections until 1971 (and even as late as 1990 at the cantonal level) and only won statutory paid maternity leave in 2005.
Ladies represent...clearly this is not a guild.
This is a guild...Not a single woman.
The parade goes through Zurich's Old Town, past the Rathaus (townhall) and finally to the main attraction - the Böögg, a towering wooden snowman, filled with firecrackers, an effigy of Winter. The burning of this Böögg is supposed to symbolize the changing of the seasons. The time it takes for the firecrackers inside the Böögg to go off determines how nice summer will be. Historically, the burning time ranges between 5 minutes (great summer) to as long 40 minutes (terrible summer).
Since I'm a postdoc, we don't really get half-days, so I missed the parades (actually, I found out about them afterwards), but we did go down a little before 6PM to see the burning of the Böögg. As I said, the area around Bellevueplatz was packed! Luckily, we still managed to get a great view of the burning!
The Böögg! We thought he'd look like a traditional 3 stacked sphere snowman. Instead he resembled the Michelin Man.
The Böögg was putting up quite the fight (and smoke!). Swiss Ms: This feels like something that I shouldn't watch.
Finally! The Böögg catches on fire.
We even managed to get video footage of this burning!
Children start crying. It's too much. Swiss Ms: I don't blame them, this is a little graphic.
Boom! Kapow!
It took the fated snowman 35 minutes to explode (on the Böögg-scale I think that means the summer will be fairly horrible in Zurich).
This was followed by some delicious sausage down by Lake Zurich.
My Kalbswurst (veal) bratwurst. Comes with mustard and bread! Very delicious! Surprisingly mild flavor and soft texture.
The Schweinefleisch (pork) bratwurst. The Swiss Ms was not impressed. Saltier and tougher than the Kalbswurst (similar to the Cervelat we had previously).
Then there is hope for the women of the U.S....who have still yet to win paid maternity leaves!
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