Zurich’s Plan for Summer

Burn a Snowman and Hope for the Best

To celebrate a year on Substack (thank you, dear readers, you’ve somehow validated my rambling semi-coherent thoughts!), I decided to write about something very local and very traditional - a festival that is held in a square in the middle of the city of Zurich, usually on the third Monday in April, but the exact date can shift to avoid conflicts with Easter or school holidays. Hey, you have to let everyone join the party!

If you’re from Zurich, feel free to stop reading here - you probably know all this already. If you’re Swiss, you get another chance. Still here? Great. Let’s proceed.

Zurich is, at once, a very modern as well as a very old city, having a history of Roman occupation from about the year zero. Remnants of this occupation are still visible in the city, as well as in other parts of the country.

Sometime in the Middle Ages, the 16th century to be precise, the city council of Zurich decided that the working day would end at 6 PM instead of 5 PM to celebrate the coming of the spring. The decision that church bells should ring at 6 PM to celebrate the arrival of spring working hours, gave rise to the name “Sechseläuten”, which literally means the ringing of the bells at 6 o’clock. (Why you would celebrate the working day ending later beats me, though!)

The workers guilds formed in the 14th century played an important part in the celebrations, and to this day members of the 26 guilds continue to do so. The guild members hop on to horses wearing traditional costumes, carrying flags and race around … wait, I’ll come to that in a second.

On the Sunday before, there is a children’s parade (Kinderumzug) in the city, also in traditional costume that is widely attended and the cause of many a traffic diversion and snafus. Do NOT drive in or through the city at this time!

Kinderumzug - photo courtesy newinzurich.com

In recent years, the parade has also included a “Welt-offenes Zürich” (open minded Zurich) section that includes children from different countries and regions around the world, including India (led by Veena in this video link).

Then comes the big finish - a huge bonfire - the burning of the Böögg, a large snowman effigy filled with fireworks, symbolizing the banishment of winter. As the bells ring 6 PM, the pyre is ignited, and the whole country watches. Bets are placed on how long it would be before the head of the Böögg explodes. Folklore says that the quicker it does, the earlier and warmer summer will be.

The Swiss still believe in it, and it is a hot topic on the day. There is live TV coverage. Celebrities are interviewed as the pyre burns in the background.

The Böögg being transported to Sechseläutenplatz, the burning pyre and waiting breathlessly for the head to explode. (Pics courtesy newinzurich and SRF)

However, data put together by meteorological services suggest no correlation between the two. There are coincidences - in 2003 the Böögg exploded in 5:42 mins and the summer was exceptionally hot. In 2023, the time was 57 mins, and it was a warm summer. Darn science!

But if we apply data analysis to folklore, we leave fun behind. Where is the fun in staying in our social media and streaming TV/music world and not enjoying tradition at its finest?

Parading children in costumes, horse mounted guilds and a snowman that explodes to chase away winter. It doesn’t get much better than this.

++++

Endnotes:

1. I drew on Wikipedia for some of the facts.

2. In case you are interested, the head exploded in 26:30 mins yesterday. Reactions vary from “that’s quick” to “that’s too long”!

3. The video link is from TikTok, which is banned in India. There are other videos available on the internet.

4. I was sure I had pictures of the Kinderumzug that we went to watch from a few years ago, but I cannot find them!

5. I was asked about this tradition in my interview for citizenship …

6. Come find me if you are in Zurich - I would love to show you around!

As usual, thanks for reading this post. Please like, comment, share and subscribe for free to appreciate and support my writing, and receive new posts.