Celebrating “Sechseläuten” in Zürich
“Sechseläuten” (Swiss German: Sächsilüüte) is an old spring festival that occurs in Zürich every year on the third Monday of April. As a global firm, we like to celebrate the traditions and customs of our local offices. Therefore, the Vivaldi Zürich office had the pleasure to host more than 50 high profile executives (and their families) in the fields of branding, marketing and media from major Swiss corporations at the Vivaldi office to celebrate once again the “Sechseläuten” festivities and enjoy a casual get together and informal peer exchange.
Despite the bad weather, guests enjoyed scenic views of the festivities from the office balcony and could watch the “Zünfte” (clubs that originate from traditional medieval city guilds and thus dressed accordingly) parading along the streets. Their traditional clothing, their wagons and their distribution of little goodies has made the parade popular among kids and parents equally. Prosecco and snacks even enhanced the great mood and facilitated many interesting discussions – and then a live stream of the culmination of the festivities: the burning of the “Böögg,” a giant artificial snowman (made of papier mâché and filled with firecrackers), symbolizing the end of winter.
The pyre is set on fire exactly at 6 o’clock p.m. Legend has it, that the quicker the poor Böögg “dies” (i.e. his head explodes), the sooner summer will come, the warmer it will be and the longer it will last. Every guest could bet on a time how long it will go until the “Böögg” explode. To everyone’s disbelief, except the bet winners from Columbia and Canada, it took around 45 minutes until the “Böögg” completely exploded and set a new record!
And we hope the “Böögg” will be wrong again. Last year it took around 20 minutes, foretelling a mediocre summer and we had one of the warmest and longest summers ever in Zürich.
The Vivaldi team wishes you a beautiful and successful spring and summer!