Yodel leh hee hooh! The vocal chords of the infamous yodel assuage the green-carpeted hills festooned with four-legged dairy producers, mewing and chewing on their cud. Adorning the cows bent necks are large basketball-sized bells which dingle-dangle pendulum-like, creating a magical din that magnifies Switzerland’s already bewitching blend of beatific landscape, pride, and tradition.

Switzerland's culture is not only right-wing conservatives, clocks, cheese, and chocolate; it is an intriguing, multifaceted country inhabited by people who have delicately harnessed a surplus of culture by retaining their ancestral languages and dialects, and mirthful, yet sometimes untamed festivals and traditions centuries old.

Carnival, or rather Fastnacht, meaning "Fast Night," witnesses Switzerland metamorphosis into a mischievous masquerade party. Adults pose amorously and attempt to shock each other. Children dress and act as their favorite animal! It is both fascinating and absurd.

Around this time Zurich holds a parade celebrating the "Six o' clock Ringing," or rather "Sechselauten," which is a two day celebration saying farewell to winter.

Children dressed in traditional red dresses and blue shirts are chased by adults (dressed as tailors) with large, fictitious scissors. Sechselauten eventually ends when the Boogg (Bogeyman) a large cotton figure containing fireworks and wood, is doused in gasoline and set aflame amongst clothed horses and an elated audience. It is said that the longer the Boogg takes to detonate its fireworks, the sooner the winter will dollop its country with snow. So much for the American ground hog day.

After the opulent ski season, late spring summons traditional wrestling (Schwingen) and the "Calling of the Cows," both ancient traditions which extol and mark the beginning of summer. Schwingen's rules are elementary; the first man to pick the other up by their leather shorts and dump the opponent onto a circle of sawdust is the winner, ultimately becoming somewhat of a rural hero. It's something akin to Summo wrestling, although the competitor's of Schwingen weigh considerably less and cease to wear unflattering diapers.

The "Calling of the Cows," (obsessed with cows?) is an event where the men, who dress in traditional woolen trousers and embroidered suspenders, and the women, whom are robed in dashing silk aprons and long-sleeve jackets, lead their colorfully decorated, neck-heavy cows up into the hills. A flag competition then begins and is followed by a musical procession.

The Alpenhorn, bellowing a melodious, melancholic baritone song over the mountaintops, is a traditional instrument synonymous with Swiss culture, stretching as far as 9 meters in length. It actually looks more like a pipe or a weapon than an instrument of effluence. Afterwards, there is a Yodel competition, allowing vocalists to betroth birds and people alike with rapid fluting notes, reviving a memory of a gallant and brotherly past.

Switzerland’s regions have been allotted, subtracted, multiplied, and have thus manifested into 26 cantons, which were thenceforth divided into sections that speak distinct languages: Swiss, German, French, Italian, and Romansch. Most Swiss speak at least two of these languages, including English. It is common to hear up to four or five languages (Spanish, Sri Lanken and Yugoslav, too) being spoken on a random tram, thereby testing the eavesdroppers linguistic skills in determining what tongue is being communicated.

A keen interest in language has stimulated an ever-growing international community, as well as a cultural awareness that is beginning to phase out, “neutrality.” Its cheese and chocolate may be the best in the world, but they do not begin to calculate Switzerland’s richness in spirit.

Switzerland is a carnival of treasure and intrigue, and has subsequently resulted in an open-minded and jovial society - more than the world has given them credit for.

Photos are courtesy of Virtually Switzerland.
To view more pictures of Switzerland go to www.alphalink.com.au/~glesti/index.htm

© Melt Magazine 2002