This Sunday is Easter, which means a long weekend here in Switzerland. For years, my parents asked if I had to work the Friday before Easter and the Monday after (aka, Good Friday/Karfreitag and Easter Monday/Ostermontag), and for years, I reminded them that the US doesn’t recognize those days as holidays. Now, for the first time since Catholic school, I have a four-day Easter weekend. Good Friday, indeed.
I also get Labor Day, Ascension, and Pentecost Monday off, then August 1 for Swiss National Day, then nothing til Christmas. Official public holidays differ by canton — the cantons of Ticinio and Valais don’t recognize Good Friday, though according to Wikipedia, most stores are closed. Of the 26 cantons, Valais is also the only one to not recognize Easter Monday as a holiday. Ticino makes up for not officially sanctioning Good Friday by celebrating various saint days, giving it and the cantons of Luzern and Solothurn 15 public holidays, the most in Switzerland.
The Easter decorations started to appear before Fasnacht ended. I’m curious about what decorations will go up in stores between now and August 1, when we get Swiss flags and firework sales, but for now, it’s all eggs. The village butcher’s window has pastel green and yellow eggs suspended from a branch wrapped in artificial ivy and daffodils. Large, painted eggs hang from the eves of two of the three restaurants on the central roundabout. There are chicken and rabbit figurines everywhere. There are normal, stuffed rabbits (toy, not taxidermy), but also many displays of rabbits wearing glasses, rabbit heads on human bodies in street clothes, and near the river, one ominous rabbit in a man’s suit standing on a balcony.
And then there’s chocolate rabbits in all sizes, shapes, and flavors. Chocolate rabbits wearing bow ties, driving cars, holding smaller rabbits, made of milk chocolate, white chocolate, white chocolate with raspberry. One chocolate brand has ads that say “everyone can make chocolate rabbits;” meanwhile, they’ve made chocolate unicorns, dinosaurs, and sheep.
And those are just your average, grocery store Easter treats. Cafes and candy shops have the really good – and expensive – stuff. A dark chocolate egg full of assorted chocolates goes for 120 francs. Obviously, this is the one I want, not the pink unicorn.
The egg decorations, the window displays of chicks and rabbits – it’s all so cute. In 2009, I visited Switzerland on my way back from two years in Togo with the Peace Corps. I spent a few days in the mountains and was astounded at geraniums in window boxes, cow bells hanging on chalets.
“Is this Disney? Why is it so clean? And pretty?” Some of this reaction came from the culture shock of leaving Lomé for the Alps, and geranium-bedecked farmhouses still earn my admiration today. We’ve got half-timbered houses with geraniums in our town, but I was never here long enough to observe the cuteness of things like decorating for Easter.
It’s not really my style, and I’m unmotivated in decoration. Check back in five years, though — maybe ReSwissing means nurturing a love for seasonal Schnickschnack.
Today in Swiss German
One of my favorite German words, Schnickschnack means tchotchkes, knick-knacks, frippery. We recently learned that Krimskrams means the same thing, but Schnickschnack will always be my go-to.
Random Easter Facts
In addition to Easter egg hunts, one of the traditions here is Eiertütscha, a game where you smash your hard-boiled egg against someone else’s to see whose breaks first. You win if your egg makes it out un-smashed.
We’ll be traveling, but on the Sunday after Easter, the town has an Eierläset, which I think means “egg pick up.” During the Eierläset, competitors throw eggs (hardboiled? raw?) at straw trays filled with chaff, among other relay races. I will plan our travel carefully next year, both to better take advantage of holidays and local traditions.
I recently learned that bilbies bring the Easter treats in Australia. So maybe unicorns and dinosaurs can also deliver Easter baskets.
Thanks again, Ms. Golden, for sharing the seasonal comings 'n' goings in Basel.
The egg-crunching contest reminds me of a similar, traditional English one. One rounds up a suitable horse chestnut, through which a hole is drilled, and a string attached. Then a combatant swings her/his chestnut at the opponents till one or the other cracks. (Not the opponents mind you, the chestnuts.)
A bit of frippery, that eh?
This is the first time I’ve heard the word Schnickschnack but in using that now. It’s so much fun to say