Sechseläuten Zurich Switzerland: Burning the Böögg

Sechseläuten is a traditional event in Zurich, Switzerland marking the end of winter / beginning of spring. After a colorful parade organized by guilds, a snowman made of paper (and filled with some explosives), called the "Böögg", is burned atop of a pile of wood to drive away winter symbolically. Tradition has it that the time it takes until the poor Böögg's head explodes is a forecast for the weather in summer. On April, 20, 2009 it took 12:55 minutes which promises a fair, but not excellent summer.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Sechseläuten
• Zürich
• Switzerland
• Burning
• Böögg
• snowman
• Schweiz
• Suisse
• Svizzera
• Suìça

[amiausUSA]

The time you had, 12 minutes 55 seconds, relatively speaking is excellent. When I was there in 2001, it took almost 29 minutes. It snowed a couple of days before Sechseläuten that year, and even the 23rd April 2001 it was quite moist. I did not return to Switzerland until 28th December 2001, so I could not really understand the meaning of the 29 minutes of Böögg burning.

My footage is from 2001, but is not available on Youtube yet. It may be available next week.