Sechselauten

Old Settler's Day + Groundhog Day + NYC NYE = Sechselauten

Yesterday was Sechselauten day. The city of Zurich gets half a day off work (that's right...a HALF of a day - because everyone is so much more productive the first 4 hours of the day then the last).

We took the tram to the Paradaplatz (it's like the tram station along the 'Rodeo Drive' of Zurich) and walked up the parade root looking at the vendors and festivities. The vendors were all very Swiss; there was the sticky cheese on toast vendor, the hot dog baguette and Goulash vendor (with no ketchup, only mustard), the Thai food vendor, the chocolate and chocolate vendor, and the pretzel wrapped in bacon and cheese vendor.

The tradition of the parade dates way back (don't ask, I don't actually know). The guilds get together and put on this parade to celebrate their professions. There are butchers and bakers (and candlestick makers), barbers, bankers, professors....pretty much every profession has a guild (now, old the men of the profession are allowed to join and attend the meetings, but don't get me started on my feelings on that). The spectators showed up with huge bags and baskets full of flowers of all kinds. As they see their local butcher (or baker or insurance agent) march past they run out in the middle of the parade to give them some flowers, and they continue to do this until the parade is over. The guild members in the parade (which does include women) are apparently dressed in their traditional garb and even some of the guilds throw out their wears.

There are even floats and bands in the parade! We listened to three marching bands. The first one played the theme song to Hawaii five-0, the second played a song by John Philip Sousa, and the last played 'I Just Called To Say I Love You' by Stevie Wonder. Doesn't anyone else find that HILARIOUS!?! Here are a few pictures to show the crazy (I guess historic) costumes.

(Doesn't this guy remind you of the crazy Muppet from the Labyrinth?)(I think this is the queen of the parade)

(These are the barbers)

(Notice all of the flowers)

After the parade of all of the guilds they walk down to the park by the lake (and opera house - where a couple of the big soccer games will be played this summer) to burn the snowman. It is a big snowman made of hay on top of a 3 story hay pile. The theory goes that the faster the snowman burns the faster summer will come, and the nicer it will be. Although the locals have a theory as well, the more lighter fluid the guilds put on it the faster it will burn...

Each guild gets a couple of minutes to ride around the hay stack on their horses and fan the fire (while their bands plays - probably the theme song from 'Friends' or 'CSI-Miami'). Here's what the snowman starts looking out like:

(Here's a video on the last 3 min of the snowman burning)

On our walk back to the house we walked past the arcade where Kyle tried to win a price by throwing beanbags at a stack of tin cans (just to say that he did) when it started to hail (what a great day for a holiday spent outside). When we got back to the parade route the street sweepers and cleaners were almost done cleaning up all of the trash...

Overall it was a pretty cool day, even though it was a terribly rainy day...