Sechseläuten 2011

The first Monday of our spring break, April 11, was also Sechseläuten.  This is a Swiss Holiday a bit like Groundhog's Day in the US.  The name means "chiming six o'clock," and goes back to medieval times.  It celebrates the arrival of spring and the lengthening daylight hours that allow people to work until 6:00pm.  There is a big parade of all the guilds in the city, culminating at six o'clock with the burning of a giant snowman, of Böög, which is stuffed with explosives.  A fire is lit under the snowman and tradition has it that the quicker its heard blows off, the better the summer will be.

We didn't go to the big parade and festivities in Zurich, but we had our own Böög to burn at home (Dave had purchased this last year when he helped out for the Bain Service Day at a place in Zurich where handicapped people assemble products for corporate clients - this is one of their products).  We went out to our garden and set up a place on the lawn for our snowman, then let it burn!