Sechseläuten is a spring festival in which the people of Zurich, Switzerland chase away winter and welcome spring. Originating with the medieval guilds, Sechseläuten means, ‘the six o’clock ringing of the bells’, and harks back to when labour laws were controlled by the guilds. During winter, people worked as long as there was light, but once the days lengthened, it was decreed that work would stop at six o’clock in the evening, thus putting some non-working daylight hours at people’s disposal, and prompting a celebration of the change to summer hours.
Sechseläuten begins with a colourful parade of floats and bands from the twenty-six guilds, and ends with the burning of the Böögg (a snowman figure representative of winter), which men on horseback gallop around three times. Added to the celebration in 1902, the Böögg is full of explosives, and the time it takes for the head to explode is supposed to be indicative of whether summer weather will come quickly or slowly. If it happens quickly (current record: five minutes, seven seconds), summer will come quickly, and be warm and dry. If it takes a while (current record: forty minutes) summer will be cold and wet.
