Holidays to Switzerland Travel Podcast Episode 149 Transcript

The Year-Round Guide to Traditional Swiss Festivals That Will Make Your Trip to Switzerland Truly Unforgettable

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Welcome to the Holidays to Switzerland podcast. If you’re planning a trip to Switzerland, this is the podcast for you. I’m your host, Carolyn Schönafinger, the founder of holidaystoswitzerland.com, and in each episode, my expert guests and I share practical tips to help you plan your dream trip to Switzerland. You’ll get helpful advice about traveling around Switzerland and hear about the most popular destinations, as well as some hidden gems, and we’ll introduce you to plenty of wonderful experiences that you can enjoy as part of your Swiss vacation. Each episode is packed with expert tips, itinerary ideas, and inspiration to help make your Swiss vacation planning easy. So let’s dive in. Gruezi, hi there. Welcome to this week’s episode.

Do you seek out local events and festivals when you visit a new destination? I think the intention of many travelers visiting Switzerland is to witness the spectacular scenery, ride on a panoramic train, visit a mountain summit, or perhaps wander the cobbled streets of a boutique Old Town. But it’s often a festival or a local event that they stumble upon that becomes the real highlight of their trip. And in Switzerland, there is a festival for everyone today. I’m welcoming Kathrin Spinnler back to the podcast. Kathrin grew up and studied in Switzerland before moving to the UK seven years ago. She’s visited plenty of traditional Swiss festivals over the years and is going to tell us about some of them today. Welcome back to the podcast, Kathrin. Thank you very much for joining me today. Would you like to tell us a little bit about yourself?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, sure. Thank you for having me. I’m Kathrin. I grew up in Switzerland, so I spent the first about 23 years of my life in Switzerland, and more specifically, I lived most of my life in Bern and then moved to Geneva for a short period. Now I live in London, but I still have a strong connection to Switzerland because I sometimes write content about it and also host a “Living in Switzerland” podcast.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Very good. And your family all still live in Switzerland too. Is that right?

Kathrin Spinnler: That’s right. So I have a lot of my family living in Bern and some of them also living in Aargau.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Oh, okay, very good. All right. Well, today we’re going to talk about some of the cultural festivals and celebrations that are held in Switzerland. And there really is something for everyone, from celebrating food, wine, animals, music, dancing, celebrating the seasons. There’s just so much on offer. So I think what we might do is we’ll go through them sort of by season. Perhaps we’ll start with winter. And yeah, I know there’s quite a few very interesting festivals that take place. So maybe you’d like to start by telling us about those.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, sure. So maybe we start in my hometown, in Bern, because there’s a very interesting and very specific festival there called the Onion Festival. That one has been going for a really long time, since about the 15th century, because at that time, the farmers in the city of Fribourg had a fire, and so they couldn’t really sell their onions locally. And so the city of Bern allowed the farmers to sell their onions inside Bern. And then that sort of became a tradition where every year they would come and sell their onions for one day. And it’s always the fourth Monday in November where there’s all these onion stalls and onion-themed festival.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, it sounds quite an unusual vegetable to be celebrating, but given the history, that makes perfect sense. I guess the farmers had spent all that time growing those onions, and then when the fire happened and they couldn’t sell them, at least they had another opportunity to do so.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, and then I guess people liked the event and it just kept going on, and it’s still going on. And nowadays, I think many of the very local schools also give the children a half day off for it, so they can attend the festival, which starts really early in the morning. So the real enthusiastic people, I think they get there at about 6 a.m. and then you have still the traditional woven onion braids that the farmers sell. So that’s still definitely a part of the festival, and you might if you go to a Swiss home in that region, you may see them hanging up in the kitchen, these lovely braids of onions of different colors as well.

Then there’s also all kinds of other things, like, you know, you get, obviously, onion tarts and onion-themed foods at the festival, but also lots of other things to eat and drink. Some confetti, the streets are always very colorful in the days afterwards. Also, there’s a funny tradition where people hit each other over the head with plastic hammers at the festival. So some stalls sell these little plastic hammers. And then people go around and, like, bop each other on the head with them.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Well, what you have to look really carefully where you go. What’s the history behind that? How did that tradition start?

Kathrin Spinnler: I don’t know. But, I mean, I’m sure initially, the hammers were made from a different material, probably slightly harder than the current one, which are a bit bouncy. So it’s not, you know, you don’t get hurt, but it’s just, I think mostly, you know, the young boys try to hit everyone on the head, and you try to escape. And, yeah, it’s this little dance people do. And then another thing that’s very traditional is the candy that they sell there. So the candy is on very long strands of different colors, and it’s kind of onion-shaped, like a very little bulb onion, and it’s of different flavors as well. But the tradition with that is that you buy it at the Onion Market, or, you know, you can also buy it in the supermarket. These strands of onion and candy, but they taste usually like peppermint or something like that.

And then, when I was growing up, the tradition was that when the Advent starts, so like the first of December, every day leading up to Christmas, you get to eat one. So the child will, like, come home at lunch from school or something and get one candy each day. And it’s something you would look forward to every single day that you would get that one onion-shaped candy until then to count down until Christmas.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so kind of like an alternative to an advent calendar that we’re more familiar with in certainly in Australia, where you open the window of the little calendar and take out a chocolate every day until Christmas. I guess this is the Bern Onion alternative.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yes. I mean, you’d have nowadays, you have that as well, of course. And when I was growing up, it was just a cardboard calendar, and each day you would get a picture. But I think nowadays, you mostly get chocolates or little gifts inside it as well. But yeah, for me, it was the onion candy and then just a picture from the calendar.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. Okay, great. And what is it that you like most about the Onion Festival?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah. So I’ve been a few times, not every year, but a few times. And yeah, the food mainly. I mean, you know, all these festivals, they have their traditional food. That’s really nice. And so, yeah, it’s also a very special atmosphere, I think. And then, of course, buying the different onion candy strands, I think, especially as a child, that was always a highlight, because then you’d get the green one and the blue one, and the very traditional one is usually the orange that you can also buy then in the in the supermarket, in the Migros or the Coop. But at the festival, they have, like, you know, all the rainbow colors. And I think as a child, that would really appeal.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, I’m sure it did. All right, so we’ve talked about a bit there about Advent, and that’s when the Christmas markets start as well, isn’t it? I think from memory that in Bern, the Christmas markets don’t open until the Onion Festival has been held. Is that right?

Kathrin Spinnler: I think the Bernese ones mostly in December. Yeah.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so tell us a bit more about the Christmas markets and what people can expect if they’re visiting Switzerland during that Advent period?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah. So it’s the four Sundays leading up to Christmas that are the Advent period. And lots of cities, or almost all the cities and many little villages also have their own Christmas market at that time. And it’s just a nice way to celebrate the festive season. You can go there. You can, of course, also buy some homemade Christmas presents, which is always a bit more personal than just getting something from the shop. And yeah, some cities start them in November, and then others maybe closer to December, but I think one of the biggest ones is in Basel, isn’t it? There’s a big Basel Christmas market. And then in Montreux is the one I went to last year. That one has a flying Santa.

Carolyn Schönafinger: I could have seen you there. I was at the Montreux Christmas market last year too.

Kathrin Spinnler: Oh, nice. Yeah. It was really good. And so, yeah, most, I mean, even the little village I grew up in, they would have one, but they would just organize it for the weekend. So the big cities have it for many weeks. And then the little towns, you just have to time it well, because they’ll have their little local one for one weekend. And yeah, people come and they sell their crafts that they’ve been working on all year. And yeah, it’s quite nice. Of course, you always also have Glühwein, which is like mulled wine, but the Swiss version, and some music, maybe obviously festive lighting all around town.

Another big thing that is very big at Christmas is the Christmas cookies in Switzerland. So that’s the main pastry you would have at Christmas. And it’s really traditional that every family has their own recipe that’s maybe passed down, or, you know, they do the same recipe each year. So in my family, and most of the areas that I know, you have four types of cookies. You have sort of the plain one called Mailänderli, and that’s like plain, maybe, with a little glaze of sort of eggy glaze. And then you have the cinnamon stars, and then you have the Brunsli, which are chocolate-based, and then the Spitzbuebe, which literally translated, means naughty boys, but it’s like with a jam filling. And the reason it’s called naughty boys is that sometimes it has eyes and a mouth cut out of it. Sometimes it’s just a circle, you know, the smaller ones, but some of them do have, like, look like a little face.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Very, very tasty. They are too.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yes, and those, obviously, you can buy homemade versions at the various Christmas markets. Or, don’t be surprised, if you’re at someone’s house and they offer you cookies, or they give you a little baggie of cookies to take home. It’s a very traditional thing to do at Christmas.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Great. Now, I’m sure it’s the same with most of the festivals, if not all of them, but particularly the Christmas markets. It’s a real social gathering, isn’t it? I mean, people come after work to meet up with friends, enjoy some Glühwein, share some stories and just catch up. So it’s not just about being there for the Christmas markets and buying gifts and so forth. It’s actually a real social occasion as well.

Kathrin Spinnler: I think so. I think in the cities, it depends. You can meet up with people after work, as you said. But I think in the little towns, definitely, because also it only happens for one weekend, maybe, and then, like the entire town will come out at some point during that weekend. And if you’re lucky, it’s snowing, and the kids will come on their sleds, you know, the parents will pull the kids on the sleds, and they’ll just sit there in their little warm coats and have some maybe for the kids, hot chocolate, you know, for the parents, Glühwein, and then the Berliner. You know that that’s a very common food there, the pastry with jam in the middle and the big round German pastry around it, because I think that’s easy to fry in place on one of the stands or waffles. So yeah, it’s nice. Everybody gets to have a chat.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, wonderful. Certainly. Great atmosphere. I visited a few Christmas markets last year, and yeah, the atmosphere was always everyone was enthusiastic and having a great time, as you would expect. Okay, so still on the Christmas theme, Saint Nicholas’s Day. So for people that aren’t familiar with, I guess German, sort of more German, Swiss, Austrian, European kind of Christmas traditions. Christmas isn’t only celebrated on the 25th of December. What can you tell us about Saint Nicholas’s Day?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, so this is a festival that honors St. Nicholas of Myra, and that is the person that Samichlaus, or Santa Claus, is based on, and he’s a fourth-century Bishop. And so it’s not really a festival. It’s just a tradition. It’s sort of celebrated on December 6, or maybe the night before as well. And I think it’s present in many regions of Switzerland, but it just depends, because the traditions can be quite different. So in my area, the main tradition is for children, and so you have to get your boot out on the fifth of December, and you have to polish it really nicely, make sure there’s no mud on it at all, and then put it outside on your window sill. And then overnight, Santa Claus, or, you know, St. Nicholas, comes and puts lots of presents in. And then in the morning, it’s like a super exciting day, because you wake up and you know that, like downstairs, your boot is full, and you can open the window and see all the presents that he left for you.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Wow. So what sort of things does he leave in the boots?

Kathrin Spinnler: Well, traditionally, this is maybe where it gets slightly less exciting for maybe modern children. Traditionally, he would leave peanuts and satsumas, you know. But nowadays, of course, he also leaves sweets and candy and chocolate and so, yeah, it’s maybe a mix. Usually, there’s still some peanuts in there because, you know, the ones with, actually the shell around it. That’s a very traditional thing to eat at Christmas time. You know, you can imagine it used to how it used to be with everybody having that and peeling them around the fire, everybody sitting by the fireplace. So, yeah, mandarins are satsumas. I don’t know what the difference is, but yeah, it’s the little ones. There are usually one or two inside the bag that Santa leaves.

But there might also be other. I mean, this is sort of the main thing that happens with the boot. But there might also sometimes be other traditions. Like, for example, there might be parades in the center of town where Santa Claus comes and hands out the mandarins and the peanuts to children who visit the square at that time. And it’ll be publicized, you know, which day, usually the fifth or the sixth or something like that. And then Santa obviously also has a helper, who’s called Schmutzli, which means, you know, the dirty one, and he is usually a little bit the mean counterpart. So traditionally, more meant for the naughty children. But obviously nowadays, you know, even when I was growing up, I didn’t really associate Schmutzli with anything negative. It was just like Santa’s helper, though, the two of them together will come and hand out things for the kids.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, right? And do children still get gifts on Christmas Eve, if they’re getting these little food treats on St. Nicholas Day?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yes, in Switzerland, Christmas Eve is actually the main day for presents. For most families, in the evening, you would light the candles on the tree and then sit around the tree and exchange gifts. I think it depends really family by family, the exact way you celebrate. We celebrated, my uncle dressed up as Santa and came around. I think you can also rent a donkey if you want, but that obviously is a little bit less common, because that’s quite a big thing. So you’ll have a family member, hopefully not the dad, because that’s too easy for the kids to guess if the dad disappears off every time, and then the person will come. My uncle always had a big golden book and a big Santa suit, and then he would come and read out what I’ve done during the year in the Golden Book, and then hand me a present or two, and then he’d leave again. And yeah, it took me quite a while to guess that it was my uncle.

Carolyn Schönafinger: So he was, it’s quite good. It was very convincing. That’s good. All right, so what about then, after Christmas, after New Year, then we’re sort of moving on through winter. There’s some quite big celebrations known as Carnival. Can you tell our listeners more about what happens during Carnival?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yes, or we also call it Fasnacht, a lot of the time, because it’s the festival that occurs straight before the fasting period in the spring. Depending on the region, it might be the week before or the week after Ash Wednesday. But it’s also celebrated at different times throughout the winter and early spring. So, you know, they’re not always that strict about that. In my little town, it was usually in February at some point. But I think in Basel, it’s this 11th thing, isn’t it? It begins on the 11th, 11th at 11:11.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, I know they have a big Carnival Festival in February, I believe.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, but there’s a whole season, and it’s a very big thing. But yeah, so it’s nationwide, but each town celebrates it at different times and to a different extent, where the Basel one is really quite extensive, and then the Bern one might be more limited in terms of the time and the main thing, obviously, are the mask parades. And, you know, people dressing up in their costumes. And you also have this very interesting Guggenmusik, which is very specific music that goes along with it. And it’s brass bands. And, you know, they usually also develop a costume for the entire brass band. So it’s quite striking, if you see these, you know, 20 or 30 people all dressed exactly the same, with their fancy instruments, all walking around town and playing their music, which, you know, sometimes it’s a little off-key, but kind of on purpose. It’s, it’s that very specific sound.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay? And some of the masks that I’ve seen photos of, yeah, they’re quite scary.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yes, I think in some parts, there’s also a lot of pagan rituals that go along with it. So in some parts, you know, there’s an element of scaring away the winter ghost or something like that. So you would want them to be slightly scary. But yeah, you get very beautiful ones, very scary ones, you know, some homemade, some bought. It’s just very diverse as well. And of course, that’s also, you know, many traditional foods that you eat, sort of wintery foods. Still, you might look at tarts or pies soup, I think, in Basel, where they have that flour soup and then confetti throwing, of course, always with these festivals and the very traditional food that I like to eat at that time of year, and it already is sold in January. So usually when I come for the winter, I get to taste it. It’s called Fasnachtschüechli, you know, Carnival cakes, I don’t know. Have you tried this? So this is really big. All the Migros and Coop, all the supermarkets sell it. They sell big stacks a bit. And it’s basically a flat heart cake, sort of with little wavy bits. It’s round and it’s very thin, so it’s like wafer thin, and then it’s got loads of powdered sugar on top, and then you just eat it and it crackles in your mouth. And it’s very nice and very traditional for Fasnacht season.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, we’ll have to check that one out next time I’m there around Carnival season or Fasnacht season.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yes, definitely, it’s a really good one.

Carolyn Schönafinger: We’re going to move on to spring now, and this is a really unique kind of event that takes place in Zurich. So tell us about Sechseläuten. I think you pronounce it.

Kathrin Spinnler: Sechseläuten means ringing the bells at six o’clock. And that’s kind of explains the history of the festival as well, because it was in medieval times when, you know, in the winter, they didn’t have electric lights or anything, and so basically the whole light day of day was used up for work. But then as spring came, people started to get free time off again in the evenings. And so they were really excited to have some daylight time that was not work time. And so they had the Sechseläuten Festival, which marks the start of spring, and the people start to get their daylight free time again. And it’s the third Monday in April.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so tell everyone what happened on that third Monday in April, because it’s quite a spectacular event.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, isn’t it? It’s important to say maybe also that this is only in Zurich, so it’s very regional or very typical of Zurich, and so there’s a big snowman effigy in the city, and it’s called the Böögg, and that is basically the main event. Is a parade of the guilds of Zurich, and then they burn this Böögg. And depending on how it burns, they kind of predict whether the summer is going to be like a nice summer or, you know, a cold one. And I think it’s when it burns or explodes quickly it’s meant to be a nicer summer. And then I think, was it two, one or two years ago, it didn’t burn at all. So everybody was very shocked and worried about the summer, but I think this year it burned all right, so we’re having an okay summer.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, good. And just for those people that haven’t seen images of it or can’t quite picture what we’re talking about here, that this big snowman effigy is like attached to the top of a big bonfire, isn’t it? And then the bonfire is lit. And then, as you said, if he explodes really quickly, supposedly the summer will be great, yeah, and what? What other sort of festivities happen around that event, taking place? Are there street parades, or is it mainly just about the burning of the Böögg?

Kathrin Spinnler: I think so. Yeah, I you know, this is a parade, so there will be sort of some festivals around there, but it’s only a day, isn’t it, so it’s not as extensive as maybe Fasnacht. I think some people also get the day off in Zurich for that, and, you know, they have some free time, or get to go and see the parade of these guilds.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, good. No doubt, plenty of color with different uniforms and all that sort of thing too. Yeah, good, right. So moving on then towards Easter. Are there many sort of traditional celebrations that happen around Easter?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yes, so I live in England now, and I’m always surprised at how little of a deal Easter is because, for us, it’s after Christmas. I think it’s the biggest sort of festival, or, you know, that happens sort of nationally, that everybody, or most cantons celebrate Easter. If I remember correctly, you get Good Friday off, and then obviously there’s Easter Sunday, and then also Easter Monday. So that, depending the kids, might already be in their spring break, but if not, they get some extra days off as well. Yeah. So there are lots of different traditions. I would think it varies a little bit by region, but one of the big ones, of course, is the Eiertütsche. And so this is based around eggs. So you boil eggs and color them, and usually that’s a nice family event that you do where you color. You can buy colored eggs in the supermarket where they’re, you know, green and purple and all kinds of very bright colors. But you also often do it yourself. And all the supermarkets sell, like, egg colors, you know, food dye for the eggs. And then you have this nice basket of very colorful eggs.

And then each person takes one and they bash them against each other, and then, you know, one person’s egg breaks and the other doesn’t. And then you have a winner. And it goes on around the table until everybody has one broken egg, and then they start eating. And you have your Easter Sunday lunch of egg bashed together.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Assuming these eggs are already cooked or hard-boiled, that you’re bashing together.

Kathrin Spinnler: So basically, you boil them, and then right after, when they’re still hot, you color them with your egg colors. So yes, they’re all boiled, luckily.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah. And what about chocolate Easter eggs, which are very, very popular in lots of other Western countries. Is that such a big deal in Switzerland?

Kathrin Spinnler: You get them, but more than that, you get chocolate Easter bunnies. So in the shape of an Easter Bunny more than an egg. You get both, but more common, or more traditional, is the Easter Bunny, and you get lots of variations, you know, different dark chocolate, light chocolate, even nougat ones, different ones. And for children, they’re put in a nest. And then the nest, you know, you might have one big Easter bunny in the nest, and then lots of little eggs around it. And then you hide it somewhere in the house or in the garden, and then the kid has to spend the whole morning trying to find the nest, which is another one of those days where the kids wake up all excited and they know that nest has already been hidden. And as even before breakfast in the pajamas, you see kids running around all over the place trying to find their Easter Nest. And in terms of what you eat. There’s also a thing called Osterfladen, like Easter pie kind of thing. And it’s like a rice pudding or something like that, in a pastry shell. That’s quite traditional. You can see it in the supermarkets as well. Sometimes it has three little, colorful, sweetie eggs on top, or a little, you know, Bunny figurine or something.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, right, okay, but Easter celebrations are more on a personal or more family sort of basis, rather than, like community kind of events. Is that right?

Kathrin Spinnler: I would think it’s like Christmas, where you spend it with your family. You know, if the children have already moved out, they come back and bring the family together. Maybe, I mean, in my family, we always have the tradition of doing the eggs and then drinking beer. But I think that’s quite a personal thing to our family. You know, each family will then have their own common, specific combinations. Some might do, you know, Swiss dishes like potato salad or something to eat. It just depends. But yes, those are sort of the traditional elements.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, all right. Now there is another community. Kind of event that I know that you enjoy visiting in your home city of Bern, the BEA. Tell us more about it.

Kathrin Spinnler: So we call it the BEA and it’s like a trade fair, almost for farmers. So it’s more it’s designed for locals, but everybody can visit. You can get a ticket quite easily, and it’s a really great thing to visit, because you really get sort of an authentic view of Swiss culture. I think you get something for the whole family. You have the little fun fair section with a lot of rides and things like that. And then obviously, lots of food stands, food villages. And then, because it’s a farming trade fair, there’s all kinds of animals, though. Anyone visiting Switzerland with family, with kids who like animals, you’re gonna see horses and different types of cows and, you know, pigs and dogs. There’s always a nice dog show. You can do little pony rides.

And then there’s also the plant section, where you can, you know, look at show planting and all the different information about Swiss farming, you know, you get a section sometimes about growing potatoes and growing different things. And then the big machines they bring and exhibit any new, you know, big farming equipment, which can be quite impressive. There’s shows, there’s demonstrations, yeah, race, animal races, or, you know, little, not races, but maybe where they train the animals and show what they could do. Maybe horse jumping, yeah, all, really, all kinds of those outdoorsy things, traditional music. So that’s a nice one for something quite authentic that most people maybe don’t know about. And it usually also check, yeah, the BEA, you can check online when it happens.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Right? And is that that would be held, I guess, in a big exhibition center, or, you know, agricultural center, which is probably what just a little bit out of the main city center.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, it’s where it usually is. You take a tram or a bus, and it doesn’t take very long, you know, it might take you 10 minutes from the city center. Or you can even walk, because Bern is not big, it’s a small city, and so everything’s quite close by, and you could kind of walk from one end to the other, so it’s not difficult to get to at all.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, excellent. All right, so let’s move on to summer. And I know that in summer there’s lots of music events and lots of celebrations, people enjoying being outside and enjoying the long daylight hours and the warm weather, particularly by the lakes and the rivers and so forth. But there’s one quite special day in summer that every Swiss person loves, celebrating the Swiss National Day.

Kathrin Spinnler: Of course, yeah, and that’s on the first of August, which is always a special day in Switzerland, because it’s a nationwide public holiday, and that’s not very common. We don’t have very many of those, because a lot of the holidays are canton-based and not national. So this commemorates the federal charter that was signed in 1291, so basically, like Swiss independence and also the coming together of the different cantons to protect each other. And it’s kind of, you know, everybody has to pay off. Though, you might start the day with brunch at your local farm. Most farms organize a brunch, and then you have a nice day off, and in the evening, there might be fireworks in town, lantern processions. We used to always at the front of the house, decorate the terrace with lanterns and little flags and lanterns, and then light the lanterns as it starts to get dark. If it’s a nice day, eat outside, and then at some point, take the fireworks up the hill and burn them all, which people still do. You’re still allowed to do that, which is nice in many areas, maybe not the city center, but you know it is. You have to be a bit careful. I mean, I remember one year we put a Catherine Wheel on the pole of the streetlight, and then it caught a fire. So that wasn’t great. But you know, the street light, about 20 years later, is still standing. You can still see the burned bit on the side. So, yeah, people have quite a lot of freedom there in what they do, how they celebrate, what fireworks they use.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, and fireworks like, there’s still quite a lot of displays. Isn’t there a fireworks in big, well, particularly in the big cities, but in lots of other smaller towns as well. But is there an alternative? Are some, you know, municipalities kind of moving away from using fireworks?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, I think there’s an initiative coming up where people are going to have to vote for against fireworks, he says, a little bit of pushback. Now, you know, as places are a little bit denser, especially in the cities or where there’s a large population with people who have pets or people who are sensitive to it, and so I think there’s going to be an initiative about whether fireworks should be, you know, limited or not, maybe sold so much to the public, because I think, you know, every year, most people are okay, but there’s going to be one or two accidents. And so I think obviously nowadays we have new technologies, people can have, like those drone shows and things like that that might may be more common in the future, rather than the traditional fireworks with the noise and the fire and yeah.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay. Switzerland’s always thinking ahead, that’s for sure. Okay, so let’s talk about another festival, and this one’s in the southern canton of Valais. This is quite an interesting one. It’s cow fighting, but it’s probably not as violent as the name makes it sound. So tell us more about this festival.

Kathrin Spinnler: No. So these cows, they’re called, like, Hérens with an H, they’re kind of bred in this area, and they naturally fight. So it’s not like you’re forcing them to do anything they don’t want to do. It’s just that they have this hierarchical struggle. And with these cow fighting festivals, it’s kind of formalized in a, you know, in a formal setting, instead of having them just do it on the pasture. And it starts in spring with the first ones, I think, and then all through summer, you have these various cow fighting festivals. And then the final happens in October, in Martigny. And then you get the winner, the winning cow, it then crowned the queen, or la Reine in French. And, yeah, basically, also maybe interesting to know is that, you know, the cows don’t get too injured that the one, if one of the cows notices that it’s weaker than the other, it might just walk away. And then that means it’s lost. So.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Okay, so they, they’re very smart, yes, they’re.

Kathrin Spinnler: Very, very good. They’re like, “Oh no, I’m gonna lose. I’ll just walk away.” And then, okay.

Carolyn Schönafinger: So there’s some other quite traditional festivals that take place in summer as well, including wrestling and some yodeling festivals and people wearing traditional costumes. So what’s more about these festivals that we should know?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, there’s loads, as you said, many are centered around traditional dress, which is different in each canton. So you can there’s these images of the different dresses for each canton, and some are around traditional music like yodeling or even the traditional Swiss sports, one of which is Schwingen, which is a sort of wrestling sport more traditional to the farming community. So most of the champions will be a local farmer, who then the federal festival, the wrestling and alpine festival, takes place every three years, and then they crown a civilian king. And he is, yeah, often a local farmer or someone in some kind of profession like that. And he might, then, for the next three years, kind of be the face of certain things. Like, for example, there’s a current ad for one of the supermarkets, you know, promoting regional products, and the Schwingen King is on that as the face of one of the campaigns.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Right? Okay, and I remember when I visited Mount Rigi, I saw there’s like a building with a big mural on it. And I believe there’s like kind of an arena there where they have a festival every year. So I guess they take place around the country throughout the summer, but then the whole big federal event is every three years.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yes, exactly. No. But you have lots of festivals like that all around and for different events as well. And you know, you have other sports like Hornussen, the Swiss sport, that’s like Swiss farmers golf, that also they have their own festivals and competitions. And you know, then there’s, there’s several different sports like that, okay, and then now, obviously, there’s also, you know, a women’s version and a men’s version of most of them. And, yeah, lots to celebrate, really, all throughout the summer. It’s a nice thing to do, because people in those farming professions or industries, they work really hard, and then it’s really nice to just have a day for the community to come together in a non-work capacity. So that’s really nice.

Carolyn Schönafinger: And yodeling and the alpenhorn playing and the wearing of traditional costumes. It’s always good to see those traditions being celebrated too.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, definitely. And these festivals, I mean, I used to love going to them as a kid because of the singing and the music and the food, and then one of the other things that’s always exciting is this tombola that’s traditionally, it’s, you know, it’s like a lottery kind of or like, you get little slips of paper all rolled up and punched together at the end, and they’re colorful. And where I was at they would usually sell them in lots of ten and so you get 10 little slips to open, and most of them are like nothing. And then occasionally you’ll get a win. And you won something, and the prizes are usually quite, you know, little things like you might get one loaf of braided bread, or you might get a packet of something useful for the household, like washing powder or something. But I remember going to one of these festivals, and the main prize was a goat. And that was very exciting. I really wanted the goat, but of course, that would not have been practical for a non-farming family. From that kind of thing, you can see that the target audience is really farming families who can then easily absorb a goat in their day-to-day life.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Probably not something that your parents were hoping that you were going to win.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, I did get some tickets, but unfortunately for me, fortunately for my parents, we didn’t win the goat. So, yeah, be careful what you enter. You enter one of those lotteries. Yeah, that’s a great tip.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Especially if you traveled from overseas, it might be a bit difficult to then dispose of the goat that you’ve just won.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, that might be tricky, but it would be a unique experience. You know.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Absolutely. Now, moving on to the end of summer is a very popular tradition. I haven’t personally seen this yet, but I’ll be in Switzerland at the end of this summer, early autumn. So I’m really, really hoping that I get to see an Alpine procession. So could you tell everybody what I am just desperate to see?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yes. So this happens in late September or October, because in lots of Swiss regions, some proportion of the cows go to the Alps, the high mountain pastures in the summer, and then obviously they have to come back down at some point. And so this tradition is, in a way, quite functional, because you have to transport the cows down the Alps, back to their home farm. But the way you do it is you incorporate it into this nice festivals where the cows actually walk down, and they dress them up, sometimes in nice little floral wreaths and things, and the farmers and everybody also wears their traditional dress. And then sometimes there’s some music and some food stands and everything. And so you watch these cows go down the mountain all proud in their nice floral headdresses.

Carolyn Schönafinger: And, of course, with their bells.

Kathrin Spinnler: Oh yes, the bells are a given. Yeah, yeah, definitely. And so you can stand there along the way and watch all these cows go by. And it’s quite unique and special.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, the images I’ve seen are just amazing. So yes, I’m really hoping to finally be able to witness one of those Alpine processions. And they’re held like all around the country. I’m in Alpine.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, if you’re not in an alpine region, like where I grew up, was kind of in the central plateau, maybe half an hour outside of Bern. You get also some cow processions, but they might be different. So there used to be this competition for cows. I think it was like a beauty contest for cows. Or they would judge them along certain metrics, and then all the cows, in the morning, would go up the hill to this competition, and in the evening, you could see them come back down, and some of them would be crowned with these very elaborate, like prizes. And you would see, “Oh, this cow has just won something.” And it was quite similar in the sense that they would go up, then in the evening they would go back down. But yeah, all kinds of cow processions in Switzerland, but you need to know where they are. So, yeah, I’m sure there are websites where you can find out where the biggest ones take place.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, there is. There’s a really good website, actually, which I’ll link to in the show notes for this episode, and also the local tourist office websites usually have a list of events that are upcoming. I know, with a lot of those Alpine processions, they don’t actually announce the date until a week or two before, because it’s quite weather-dependent, so it can be hard to plan around those processions, but I’ll include a link and people, if they’re going to be in Switzerland during that time, they can keep an eye on any upcoming events.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, and another one, maybe that’s related to this, that once the cows that have returned, there might be a cheese festival as well. So this usually happens a little bit after the procession is finished. And the tradition of it is that small-scale farmers in the Alps couldn’t all make their own cheese, so they would pool all their milk to produce cheese, and then at the end of the season, the cheese obviously would have to then be split fairly between the farmers based on each one’s contribution. So they would also make a festival out of that. Nowadays it’s maybe still done that way sometimes, but most of the festivals are about producers having stands, sharing their products, showing people what they’ve made, lots of food stalls and some music and sometimes also still some small procession. So that’s a nice one that may I don’t know how that’s announced, but maybe that’s more easy to plan around if there’s a local cheese festival.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, that’s right, because it’s not so or not weather-dependent. They’ve already produced the cheese, so it’s just yeah, a matter of setting a date to actually sell it.

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah, yeah. And that’s a really delicious one, too. Is it, isn’t it?

Carolyn Schönafinger: Absolutely yes. With, I can’t remember how many different cheeses there are in Switzerland, but it’s an amazingly high number. So there’s certainly plenty of different options to try and then moving into autumn, of course, there’s the wine festivals, when the vineyards on celebrate the end of harvest. What happens at a wine festival in Switzerland?

Kathrin Spinnler: Obviously, wine tastings. There might be open cellars, where you can go for a wine tasting, and then, you know, some food stalls you can enjoy your drink with some local food. And yeah, same as many other festivals, there might be music, there might be some parades, and it’s very regional as well, right? This doesn’t happen in all the areas. It’s mostly in the wine-producing regions. Like Ticino or Vaud or Valais, but, yeah, what’s interesting is that this is a good opportunity to try Swiss wine, because you can’t taste that very often, because most, like, I don’t know, a crazy number, like 98 or something, percent of Swiss wine is consumed inside the country, right? So if you want to try some Swiss wine, this would be a good place to go.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Yeah, for sure. And often those not all. But in a lot of those vineyards, the views are just from there are just amazing, like Lavaux on the hillside looking over Lake Geneva, like, the views are just stunning. So why not go to a wine festival, get those great views and enjoy some Swiss wine at the same time? The perfect way to end our chat about different Swiss festivals and traditions. Is there anything else that you wanted to mention?

Kathrin Spinnler: I mean, those are the big, sort of traditional ones. You can also obviously find a lot of more modern festivals. You know, there’s, like, a jazz festival. There are some techno, you know, like music festivals. In Bern there’s the Gurten Festival on the Gurten mountain every year, which is quite popular. So if you want traditional festivals, those are the ones we’ve talked about a bit today, which one’s quite diverse. You can also find very modern, you know, music type festivals as well. So there’s something for everyone, really.

Carolyn Schönafinger: No doubt there certainly is. Well, thanks, Kathrin, it’s been great to chat to you again. You mentioned that you host the “Living in Switzerland” podcast, so I’ll link to that in the show notes as well. You’ve also translated at least one book that I’m aware of. What else do you do?

Kathrin Spinnler: Yeah? So aside from that, I teach languages. So I teach German English mainly. And if you’re someone who, before you go to Switzerland, you might want to practice some German, or, you know, learn some of the basics. Yeah, feel free to reach out and we can have a chat in German. Hopefully.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Excellent. And so how can people contact you?

Kathrin Spinnler: I have a website. It’s just my name, https://www.google.com/search?q=Kathrinspinnler.com, and also LinkedIn is always an easy one. Just add me on LinkedIn and send me a message.

Carolyn Schönafinger: Fantastic. All right. Well, thank you again. It’s been wonderful chatting to you, and hopefully we’ll have you back on the podcast again in the not too distant future. Thank you so much. Cultural festivals and events are a fantastic way to get a better understanding of local traditions, and I think it’s wonderful that centuries-old traditions are still celebrated in Switzerland today. They also give visitors the opportunity to support local farmers, cheesemakers, vineyards and artisans, and to party alongside the locals. No matter what season you visit Switzerland, I encourage you to seek out one of these traditional Swiss festivals or events and stop by for an hour or two. Most local tourist office websites list the details of upcoming events.

If you’d like to hear more from Kathrin, she chatted about Swiss etiquette in Episode 98 and she shared her tips for first-time visitors to Switzerland in Episode 116. I’ll link to those episodes and episode 34 which covers some of Switzerland’s top Christmas markets. In the show notes, you can also get a copy of my brand new Switzerland trip planning guide and kit in the show notes, and you’ll find them at holidaystoswitzerland.com/podcast. As always, if you found the podcast helpful for your Swiss vacation planning or we’ve inspired you to visit a destination or a festival that wasn’t previously in your itinerary. Please leave a five-star rating or a review wherever you listen to podcasts, it only takes a minute or two, but it helps the podcast to reach even more folks who are planning a trip to Switzerland, just like you. Thanks so much. Until next week’s episode, Tschuss!

You can see the full show notes and listen to this episode > here.