The Sechseläuten is a celebration of joy where the people in Zurich are looking forward to the warmer seasons after the long and cold winter nights. Their spring festival is celebrated at the Limmat city, usually during the 3rd week of April, with a colorful children's parade on Sunday and the actual Sechseläutenumzug on Monday. The highlight is the symbolic burning of a snow man - the Bööggs (which according to my hubby's colleague, it means 'nose dirt' which I thought is quite appropriate cos most of the people here blow their noses away in the cold weather).
Thousands of costumed Zünftern and tens of thousands of spectators and viewers would populate the city of Zurich and would witness the burning of Bööggs at the parade or 'Live' on TV. According to the the tradition, the length of time from the lighting of the fire to an explosion of the Bööggs is a yardstick for the weather development of the following summer. This time, it took about 23 mins for the Bööggs to explode, hence they were saying that the summer might have more rains or so.
It was drizzling as we went out in the afternoon. The weather forecast had indicated that it would be a rainy day and it was.
In 5 layers - spaghetti top, thermal, long sleeve top, sweater and the coat
On our way to the parade, we saw a horsey by the road. And when we came back, they had lined the streets with their poos.
The weather sure looks gloomy.
Over here, the seats of cafes & restaurants are usually faced out so that they patrons could enjoy viewing the streets & people
He reminds me of the toy soldier in those cartoons that I've watched.
Doesn't she resembles a little 'Arwen' from Lord of the Rings?
What he's carrying is actually bread.
He's throwing out bread to the spectators & Uncle Tan managed to 'hop' one ;>
This cute boy here went round 'cutting' audiences' hats.
This gentleman here threw me a small bouquet of roses. Cool huh ;pApparently, I appealed more to the Ah Peks there as they are the ones who threw me the flowers keke ;>
Looks like one of those in the movies on London eh?
Where art thou thy lady? ;p
This guy seems rather 'camera sensitive' he looked into both our digital camera & video camera. He came over and passed Uncle Tan a souvenir from Switzerland. Ooh...so nice...Jingyi, where art thou??
As it was getting colder with the rain, everyone is starting to take wine to warm up.
And most started to wear their ponchos as the rain became heavier...
while others, take their brollies.
I guess it's their traditions for the audiences to give flowers to the paraders. As you may have noticed that many of them carrying flowers.
Poor kids, they must be cold...
Poor horseys...I could see fumes emitting from their body & their noses. By the way, their saliva is white & foamy & the sandy, brown stuff on the floor is their poo. It does smell a little but after it's dried, it actually looks like hay. They're vegetarians remember?
Caught this cute little boy in my clip where he had to quicken his steps in order to keep up the pace of the rest.
Mummy had to carry a sleepy soldier.The rain got heavier & we had to seek shelter from a nearby cafe as we were all shivering. I supposed the weather must have been reaching below 4 deg. Fortunately we managed to find seats in the cafe and were 'forced' to order 4 cups of hot chocolate instead of 2 as she explained in German that the cafe is crowded and so each one had to order something. Ok, fortunately it didn't cost too much for a cup of instant hot chocolate (4.50 Fr).
The parade continued despite the heavy rain & it went all the way till about 6+pm. It was a pity we couldn't catch the whole thing because of the weather. Otherwise we could have 'hoped' more bread, sausages, flowers etc. ;p
We went out of the cafe later & walked to the place where they will burn the Bööggs. We sought 'warm shelter' from the UB office whilst waiting as it was warmer in there. I almost wanted to give up and just go home and watch the live telecast (but duno which channel and may not be in time as it was already 6pm and the tram had stopped service till after the parade). Fortunately, we managed to hang on and we could see the action from where we were. It reminds me a of our Chinese New Year celebration with the fireworks, over here is the explosions of the Bööggs as it burns. Caught it on camera as well but not sure if I can download it here as the file is pretty huge.
After when it was completely burned, we walked to take a tram back. We could still hear the explosions as we walked.
As you can see, it was really cold even with my 5 layers with thermal...
Finally going home!
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