The Sechseläuten - "national" Zurich holiday, picture story
So, The Sechseläuten. By the way in Zürich German it's Sächsilüüteit - crazy, wright? It was a half-working day today, and then everybody went to the Hauptbahnhofstrasse, where a great performance took place. Following the parade of the Zünfte (guilds), the climax of the holiday is the burning of winter effigy, that is 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 shortest time on record is 5:07 minutes in 1974, and the longest was in 2001 with 26:23. And today the new record took place - 35:11!!! They say it means we don't have summer this year.
To read more about it please go here.
Even so, the holiday is very nice. As for me, the best part is not the burning itself, but the parade. I'd like to share a few photos I made today, just to show you how warm, sunny and beautiful it was.
First, the street fair, as always, suggesting a wide variety of sweets, sausages, beer and other stuff.
The people, the audience, I liked the most. They all came very prepared for a three-hours street parade - wearing hats, sunglasses, everybody had a bottle of water or so, and there were tones of flowers everywhere!!!
When parade started, it was very loud because of the dozen of orchestras in it, participants, both human and different animals, and audience, applauding all the time.
I also like the part when audience give flowers to participants as a sign of welcome, approval or appreciation. Participants give some presents to audience as well.
Oh, these presents... A very good mood! I've also got a small one :)
Some young Swiss thought I was a reporter, and they tried very hard for a nice picture, than asked to say hello, so here it is - HELLO to them!
And happy Sächsilüüteit to all of you!!!
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