Every year the guilds and the townspeople of Zurich celebrate the coming of spring with good old Pagan zest. Sechseläuten starts on Sunday with a parade of adorable children in colorful outfits bringing Böögg into the city. I give this a miss and show up on Monday for the more dramatic bonfire where they sacrifice Böögg to the weather gods.
So, who is this Böögg geezer and why should I care?
Böögg, Swiss weather man or myth?
Böögg, which evidently means the “White Straw Man”, is a big stuffed snowman, and assuming that some left wing radical group hasen’kidnapped him again, he’ll get torched on Sechseläuten in effigy for Old Man Winter. As an added treat his head is filled with explosives, and to make sure it all goes smoothly they set him on a 13 Meter high pile of wood, which is treated with lighter fluid. No taking chances in Switzerland. Then while the 60-foot inferno blazes, troops of riders from the various guilds race around it on the extreme edge of their equestrian skills.
Böögg is meant to be able to predict the weather. The faster he burns (and explodes), the quicker the summer will get here, and the longer and sunnier it will be. In weather prediction Böögg’s record is spotty, however in getting his head blown off he’s very consistent.
The tradition has been in its present form in Zurich since 1904.
Shortest time on record is 5:07 minutes in 1974
Longest time is in 2001 with 26:23.
Date for the 2008 Sechseläuten
Here we get to see the wheels of Swiss bureaucracy in blazing action. The Zurich City Council Decision (Nr. 1214, June, 13 1952) stipulated Sechseläuten will be the 3rd Monday of April…unless it falls in Karwoche (Holy Week), in which case it’s on the 2nd Monday…unless of course that’s Easter Monday, because then it goes to the 4th Monday. Just introduced and effective from 2008: if after all the above it falls during spring break of the Elementary schools, OR, in the first week of May, then a new date will just have to be picked (by a committee I assume).
This years date is: April 14, 2008
The time is less convoluted. The torch is set on the 6th stroke of the Grossmunster clock, which makes sense given that “Sechseläuten” means six rings.
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