Swiss Festivals and Fairs: Individual Events


Figure 1.-- A Swiss reader sends us a snapshot taken recently in Canton Thurgau during a village folk festival. Two tourist young women have a photo with three local boys, wearing traditional costumes. The boys are barefoot, that is a correct interpretation of local traditions, but also a current custom for several children. On the other hand we can see that the boys follow also modern trends. All three have earrings.

There are a huge number of festivals in Switzerland. Every village has one and often more than one. Theu are clustered together particularly in the spring and fall. There are few weekends in which some village does not hold a festival or fair of some kind. There are also summer and winter festivals as well. And of course all this is in adition to an aray of concerts also held, especially in the cities. The number of SWiss cultural celebrations is impressive and the variety is truly remarkable. We are not sure that anyone has ever compiled a list of the festivals. It would be a long list if they did. We have only limited information on individual festivals. Hppefully our Swiss readers will tell us about their local festivals.

Alpabfahrt

A HBC reader provides us informatiom on the Alpabfahrt, "The Alpabfahrt is an annual event in the mountain regions of Switzerland, Austria and Germany. During summer cows feed on alpine pastures high up in the mountains. In autumn there is a concerted cow train to bring the cows to their stables down in the valley. This is the Alpabfahrt. Usually this takes place in September. Often the cow train is celebrated with music and dance and the people wear traditional costumes. In several villages nowadays the Alpabfahrt became a tourist attraction. The photo was taken in Appenzell mountains, Switzerland. A family group is rady to start the Alpabfahrt. They are wearing their folk costumes. We can note the leather caps worn by the younger boys and the hat worn by the older brother. We can note also the different choices about footwear. The adults and the older girls wear boots. The boys, except the toddler, wear traditional style shoes. The younger girl, instead, chose to walk barefoot. We know that in Switzerland is common that children go barefoot, but we must think that they have to walk for several kms through mountain streets. Not only the girl chose to walk shoeless, but even the parents had no objection about it."

Unknown Village

One the previous page we see Swiss boys wearing pre-World War I caps and uniforms in an unidetified village. They look like Napoleonic War vintage styles--this was the last war in which Switzerland was involved. The photograph was taken just after World War I in 1920. This was usualy done during a village feast for the local parade. The Swiss of course were neutral in the War in which the various ethnic groups were some of the most important particupants--France and Grmany. This pictures shows a typical Swiss village at the time.

Escharlens

We note a festival being celebrated in the town of Escharlens. Unforunately we do not know much about the festival. The boys involved are from the town choir.

Canton Thurgau

A Swiss reader sends us a snapshot taken recently in Canton Thurgau during a village folk festival (figure 1). He did not mention the name of the village. Two tourist young women have a photo with three local boys, wearing traditional costumes. The boys are barefoot, that is a correct interpretation of local traditions, but also a current custom for several children. On the other hand we can see that the boys follow also modern trends. All three have earrings. We don'yt think that was a traditional aspect or the boys' long pants.







HBC






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Created: 1:45 AM 10/19/2013
Last updated: 9:18 PM 8/21/2017