Sechseläuten, the Spring Festival in Zurich

Each April, Zürich celebrates the Sechseläuten, which is a traditional spring festival (as good as we can translate the Sechseläuten word, it means something like "The six o'clock ringing of the bells" ;-)) It is such an important event, that the Monday afternoon is considered to be bank holiday in Zurich (too bad, neither of us is working in Zürich canton... but this year, for the first time, we decided to check out 'the actions')

The celebrations start on Sunday with a colourful children's procession, which is then followed by the main festival on Monday, when people in traditional costumes and marching bands, together with carriages and coaches, parade through the city centre to the Sechseläuten-Platz at Lake Zürich. Thousands of people gather here to watch the "burning of the Winter" by setting fire to the Böögg, basically a snowman whose head is filled with explosives:

From 2010 - Sechseläuten

It is said, the quicker his head catches fire and explodes, the finer the summer should be... well, the Böögg predics us a gorgeous summer in 2010 as his head barely resisted for 12 minutes and 54 secs:

From 2010 - Sechseläuten

Note for all our friends: this is now the right time, get prepared for visiting us!!! (pre-booking and early room reservation may be required due to the potential heavy traffic :-)) Shall  there be rainy weather during your visit, well, then you're just not lucky enough... but do NOT blame the Böögg, he has a few-hundred years of experience with this!

Some more pics on the Sechseläuten festival here.