Sechselauten

"Sechselauten" - or six bells. The series of events taking place this weekend in April are meant to symbolize the end of winter and the coming of summer. It is a unique celebration to the city of Zurich and has reportedly been around for over 600 years. Besides the parades, the big climax of the festivities is the "burning of the Boogg" or a cotton wool snowman filled with firecrackers. The snowman (which is usually over 10 feet high) stands on top of a wooden pyre (12 feet high); once the bells of St. Peter church chime six o'clock (in the evening), the pyre is ignited. When the head of the snowman explodes, winter is considered to be officially ended. The shorter the time from ignition to explosion, the sooner summer is to arrive. It's kind of like Groundhog Day except with a lot more pyrotechnics involved. In our case, the Boogg burned in almost record time -- in a little over 10 minutes! Lucky for us. Say what you will about myths, but the summer has been long and hot so far!