Sechselaeuten

On Monday afternoon much of Zurich had a holiday and a huge festival was held to mark the beginning of Spring! Wikipedia has a nice entry about the celebration. Here is a bit of an excerpt:

"The roots of the festival go back to medieval times when the first day of summer working hours was celebrated in the guildhalls across the city... Following the parade of the Zünfte (guilds), the climax of the holiday is the burning of Winter in effigy, in the form of the Böögg, a figure of a snowman prepared with explosives...Popular tradition has it that the time between the lighting of the pyre and the explosion of the Böögg`s head is indicative of the coming summer: a quick explosion promises a warm, sunny summer, a drawn-out burning a cold and rainy one."

The "snowman" in all his glory atop a pile of fuel soaked wood just waiting for the flames! Starting to go up in smoke and fire! Uh oh! Now the actual "snowman" is starting to burn!
We have a video of the explosions that I couldn't get to upload properly but I will try again another day.

This year the snowman's head blew around the 13 minute mark which means we should have a warm sunny summer! It is a tradition that after the fire dies down (which takes a few hours) people gather around the square and take shovels full of ashes to cook over. Our friend Angela brought out her little portable grill and an assortment of delicious sausages to roast. The guys took the grill up towards the inferno and got some coals from the fire, then made their way through the crowd of picnic goers back to our spot near the edge of the madness. It was amazing. Thousands of people were there to enjoy the great weather and the atmosphere. Shovels of hot ash were being carried everywhere through the crowds. Sounds dangerous, right? And people were cooking food, drinking wine and beer, and generally just enjoying themselves. This is what is left over after the fire burns down for a few hours.

Still going pretty strong but that doesn't keep the crazy grillers away! Panoramic shot of the after-party Up close and personal getting some coals. 10 feet from it and it is so hot it feels like it will melt your face off! The guys carried the little grill back in a cardboard box which proceeded to burn away after they set it down. Good thing they got back to us when they did! Later in the evening the fire would still flame up every once in a while I would put this on my list of top thing to see in Zurich. We will be going next year (weather permitting of course) and also grilling out afterwards. It was so much fun, especially since we were there with a big group of friends.