"Räbechilbi" (pronounced "Rabba-kill-bee") is a Swiss holiday that celebrates the end of the harvest, and marks the symbolic transition from fall to winter. And it turns out our village of Richterswil has the largest "Räbechilbi" festival in Europe. The festival is celebrated with turnips, which are hollowed out and then illuminated with candles inside (very similar to "luminarias" in Mexico.) According to legend the holiday originated as an occasion for farmers and their families to give thanks for their harvests each year. Another legend tells that in the 19th century the farmers living in the hills above Richterswil used turnip lanterns to find their way home from the fields at night, and their wives would use turnip lanterns to find their way home from evening church services.
Anyway, the festival is held on the 2nd Saturday in November, and it is a big deal around here. All the lights are turned off in the village and the villagers parade through the streets with floats decorated with turnip lanterns. Practically every major building in town is lit up with lanterns. Supposedly, something like 26 tons of turnips are used for the festival. The town dumps a huge pile of turnips in the center of the village for residents to take. Everyone is encouraged to decorate their homes.
So all last week we celebrated "Räbechilbi." Up at the kids' school all the classes got to make turnip lanterns. Each student made their own, and then at the end of the week the students and their families all hiked through the woods behind the school with lanterns in a big parade. I volunteered to help out Ben's and Megan's classes with their lanterns, so I got an education on how to make a lantern out of a turnip. Basically you start by hollowing out the turnip, (which I discovered has a pretty dense interior. Not as easy as a pumpkin.) After that it's up to you. Adults pretty much like to hollow out the turnip and put a candle inside and call it good. Children however like to take it further. Children take cookie cutters and scrape out designs on the turnip, or write their names or initials on it. Typically though you don't carve it like you would a pumpkin. The idea is to illuminate it from within. (By the way, I spent a lot of time this week smelling like turnips. Not a good smell.)
Our week ended with the big festival in our village. Many other communities around Zurich and the rest of Europe have their own celebrations this time of year, but Richterswil's festival is the big one. Supposedly it's world famous. Even the Guinness Book of World Records recognized it in 2000 as the largest turnip festival. Wow! Who knew? Woohoo! We're on the map!
Supposedly turnips have been used as lanterns throughout Europe for ages. In fact, it was the pilgrims who first brought the tradition to America. Then later when Irish immigrants first arrived in America they continued the tradition until they realized pumpkins were much easier to carve and hollow out. That's how the "Jack-O-Lantern" originated. As a big fan of Halloween I thought it was really interesting discovering all that.
Anyway, we had no idea our tiny village was the Mecca for turnip festivals, so it was a
big surprise and a cool experience. It was cool to see the kids all week immersed and interested in a holiday that was completely foreign to them (sorry for the pun.) This entire week has been an education for all of us concerning "Räbechilbi," and I wanted to share all of this with you all. So to better explain it to everyone I tried to take a lot of pictures of the whole experience, from making the lantern to the festival itself. Enjoy.
MAKING THE KIDS' LANTERNS
THE "RABECHILBI" PARADE AT SCHOOL
GETTING READY FOR THE VILLAGE PARADE
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