Beetroot, anyone?

On Friday night, DS was deposited at kindergarten at a 6pm for what's known as the Räbelichtli Umzug.

In these parts (Zürich, Schaffhausen and Aargau) the Räbelichtli Umzug is celebrated on the first weekend of November, with a lantern procession around the streets. It's not Halloween, but rather a welcoming of winter.

That Friday morning, I'd been invited to the kindergarten with the other parents to assist DS as he hollowed out Räbe (white beetroot) with a melon ball-er.

[Me: Mum, Dad, I'll see you later. I have to go and carve turnips. Help yourself to the chocolate coins.]

Once hollowed out, decorations are carved on the outside of their Räbe: stars, hearts, flowers, Swiss flag crosses, and I even saw an edelweiss.

DS carved a rocket and, as it turned out, wasn't keen on letting me do anything much except tie up the strings, so I sat back and watched him earnestly add to the growing pile of Räbe shavings, while I had the occasional reviving beetroot snack with the little girl I was sitting next to.

At 6pm DS joined the other children and they all filed past the parents with their lanterns. Then they proceeded to walk around the local streets, singing traditional songs with the kindergarten teachers. (I've heard that the songs are about how friends and family and lanterns will keep them warm even though the winter is cold.)

Then we watched through the window as the children sat in the kindergarten at a candle-lit table and were served bratwurst and hot soup and bread by their teachers. I haven't seen DS look so content for a long time. It warmed the Hausfrau's heart.


PS. The next very chilly evening it was the whole of Horgen's turn to have a procession, complete with wagons adorned with lanterns. The streetlights were turned off, lanterns glowed on windowsills, and (mostly older) people watched from the windows as huge numbers of children and parents walked down the hill to the town square, where we were greeted with free sausages and bread for the kids, while a brass band ripped out disco medleys; 'I will survive' and 'Eye of the Tiger' to kick it off. (Oh, and then the church bells started chiming on top of it all.)