On our my quest to experience all things "Swiss," we ventured off this past Saturday to Richterswil, home of Europe's (or some might say the World's) largest Räbechilbi or Turnip Festival! Some of you may remember my experience last April with Sechselauten (burning of the snowman) where I stood for hours in the cold rain, by myself, just to experience this uniquely Zürich event. Well, I'm happy to report that this time I was not too cold, it was not raining, and best of all...I was not alone! We went with a group of ten new friends and enjoyed some Swiss tradition followed by a little Italian food and drink!
According to Lonely Planet,
Apart from being used as a phallic plot device in Blackadder, the turnip has never enjoyed much limelight. In an attempt to correct this criminal neglect, the good people of Richterswil, a small town on Lake Zürich, organise an annual celebration of the vegetable.
The philanthropic souls have been beavering away at their noble mission since 1905, organising a parade featuring 26 tonnes of carved root vegetables. Add in 50,000 candles and you have a veritable light-and-turnip spectacle. Resembling everything from elephants and roses to turnip temples, the floats parade past 10,000 hanging lanterns. The grinning jacko’- lanterns cover houses, the local church and even a funicular tramcar. Richterswil was rewarded for its dedication to the Brassica rapa when the festival made it into the Guinness Book of Records in 1998.
Not much more I can add to that...other than at 18:25, five minutes before the start of the parade, a huge bang went off and all of the lights in the town went off in preparation. It was truly a light-and-turnip spectacle...a kind
of Tournament of Roses Parade gone "Root!"
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| First thing we saw after getting off the train - beautiful! |
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One of the fancier carved turnips - the ones on the window sills
are typically just hollowed out without designs. |
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| New Christmas decorating idea?? Pinterest anyone?? |
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| Residents all getting prepared for the big parade. |
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| Beautiful staircase! |
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| Crowds in eager anticipation... |
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| How do we get one of these views next year? |
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| A sampling of floats..."Down with the Euro??" |
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| A Hippy - note the peace sign necklace! |
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| Captain Jack Sparrow |
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| Jonah and the Whale...from the back. |
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| Eagle - We figured that was for us :) |
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Working Windmill - the front turns and the turnips spin
so as not to lose their candles! |
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Woman's silhouette on the side on the windmill...
not sure what that was all about! |
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| Ray Charles...why not? |
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| Eiffel Tower |
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Leopard - Our 1st place prize winner -
if we were giving out awards! |
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| Although this Alfred Hitchcock was pretty impressive too! |
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| Double Decker London bus |
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| And continuing the London theme...London Bridge! |
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Dinner afterwards!
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Amazing what you can do with a turnip! I was thinking "radishes(?)", but a turnip makes so much more sense!! :)
ReplyDeleteSo, the power returns and the trains start running (albeit on a "limited" basis)... life starts to return to normal for our favorite cat sitter! Love you!