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The Zurich Sechselaeuten - A Spring Tradition and Holiday
The Sechseläuten is a traditional spring holiday the city of Zürich, Switzerland. It has been celebrated since 1904 and is a very popular spring holiday, that starts with a cortege of the traditional Zurich 'Zuenfte' (trade associations or guilds that go back to the middle ages and unite different professions). Festival from the Middle Ages The festival is based on traditions that lead back to the middle ages, when the first day of summer working hours was celebrated in the guildhalls everywehre in Zurich. Local city laws prescribed and regulated the duration of the working day at that time. In winter, the workday lasted as long as there was daylight, and it was not püractical to work longer. This was different in summer, and to protect the workers, during the summer, the citiy laws prescribed that work had to be ended when the church bells tolled at six o'clock. Sechselaeuten is German and translates into "The six o'clock ringing of the bells". The reason for the holiday is, that this change to summer working hours allowed people to enjoy some non-working daylight hours. Large Bonfire and Böög When the cortege finally reaches the Sechselaeutenplatz in front of the Zurich opera house, a hughe fire is lit. On top of the fire is an effigy, called the Böög, made out of paper and containing some firecrackers in the head. Horses and riders from the different guilds ride around the fire in fast pace and everybody waits attentively until the crackers in the Böög's head explode. Tells how the next Summer will be The tradition days, that the time between the lighting of the large wooden fire and the explosion of the Böög`s head tells how the next summer will present itself : if it explodes fast, the summer will be a nice, warm one, if it lasts longer until the explosion, it's supposed to become a wet, cold and miserable summer.... The shortest time on record is only 5:07 minutes to the explosion in 1974, and the longest time on record until the head exploded was in 2001 with 26:23. The explosion of the Böögg`s head on 16 April 2007 was after 12:09, promising an average summer, which came pretty close the actual weather exerienced. The next dates for the Zurich Sechselaeuten If you want to visit Zurich to assist the Sechselaeuten festival, the date for the next two occurances will be April, 14th, 2008 and April, 20th, 2009.
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