Throwing eggs is our culture
Prices may be up, but it's tradition
Did you ever participate in a Field Day at school, with relay races like hopping in burlap sacks and carrying a raw egg on a spoon? Or maybe you’ve egged someone’s house or car?
That’s kind of what an Eierläset is. A relay race that ends with throwing the egg.
The Eierläset (aka Eierleset, Eierlesen, Eierauflesen), which roughly translates to Egg Pick-Up or Picking Up Eggs, is a spring and fertility tradition for chasing away winter, maintained by local gymnastics and football (soccer) clubs in the cantons of Aargau, Solothurn, and Baselland. There’s evidence dating this tradition back to the 16th century, not just in more of Switzerland, but also in Germany and southern France.
According to the Living Traditions article on Eierläsets, there are two types of events, those that involve elaborate masks and those that are more of a sports competition. The masked tradition seems to take place in Aargau. Our town’s event falls into the latter category. The masked competitions are probably also those that have one team representing spring and the other, winter. Ours just has relay races by age category.
I went to my first Eierläset last Sunday. The event took place in one of the elementary schools’ yards. Each competing team ran through an egg lane, created by little heaps of saw dust or grain hulls (like the ones they dump on people during the local Fasnacht). A raw egg sat atop each mound; these got picked up by participants, carried down the lane, then thrown toward a giant, grain-hull filled basket held by the egg catchers. If the egg broke along the way or fell short of the basket, the runner had to try again. The egg catching rules seemed loose – I saw all the catchers throw their basket forward, onto the ground, to catch the egg multiple times.
We arrived in time to see the races for the older kids and then a mix of young adults, probably late teens and early 20s. The kids had different challenges to complete: roll an egg in a tire to the throwing line, carry one with a spoon, balance one on a towel you hold with a partner. The adults just had to do a lot of running and egg throwing.
While I watched the races, I tried to think of six other people who might join a team with me. Then I remembered I can’t run. Better to cheer on the egg tossers from the sidelines, and definitely the sidelines not behind the egg catching area. I saw at least two people standing behind the egg catchers get hit by eggs.
The community donates the eggs for the event. On Saturday, my mom took her eggs to a collection spot in the village center. Members from the gymnastics club stood around one of the egg catching baskets, which already held cartons and a collection tin filled with francs. Mom pulled farm eggs out of her bag.
“These are going straight into the pan!” one of the egg collectors said.
You can get your fill of eggs at the Eierläset – around the corner from the race course, a team of volunteers cooked all the eggs that weren’t thrown (and apparently the higher quality eggs) to order. Next year, I’ll won’t fill up on raclette beforehand.
Watching kids and adults race around, throwing eggs at baskets and occasionally hitting on-lookers made for a good time. But the town of Effingen in Aargau has the king of the Eierläset traditions: costumed, masked characters like the Bridal Couple, the Runner, the Rider, the Chicken Man, the Old Man, and the Old Woman competing on Spring and Winter teams. They hold their competition every two years, and it might be worth checking out in 2026.
Today in German: Weichei
If you want to call someone a baby, wimp, or wet blanket in German, you call them a Weichei, literally a soft egg.
Sources
Eierläset Effingen (worth a visit for the pictures)