When picking out my hike this weekend, I knew that I wanted to avoid the region around Burgdorf in Kanton Bern, because the once-every-three-years Schwingfest is being held there. The Schwingfest involves three major traditional Swiss sports: Schwingen, stone throwing, and Hornussen. Over 250,000 people were expected to attend this event, and hundreds of special trains were scheduled to accommodate all of these visitors! Given that I highly dislike crowds, I decided to stay away, but I found the proceedings so interesting that I wanted to share them with you.
Schwingen is traditional Swiss wrestling that I think looks sort of like sumo wrestling, but with clothes on and burlap underwear on the outside. Here's a video from the 2010 Schwingfest, courtesy of Swissinfo:
Stone throwing is just that: throwing big heavy stones. In the above video, there's also a clip of that.
Hornussen is described as a mix of golf and baseball, and I had never heard of it before reading storied about the Schwingfest. Here's another video explaining hornussen, also from Swissinfo:
I think these traditions are so interesting and Swiss! It almost makes me wish I had decided to go check it out... But, then I remember those crowds, and realize that it was probably for the best that I didn't! Yesterday I actually got as close as Solothurn and Biel (in the train) to Burgdorf, and the fans that came onto the train were crazy! One group of pensioners, in particular, was SUPER sloshed, wearing leis and rainbow wigs, and yelling up and down the length of train car. So not Swiss, which seems ironic, given how Swiss Schwingfest is!
Schwingen is traditional Swiss wrestling that I think looks sort of like sumo wrestling, but with clothes on and burlap underwear on the outside. Here's a video from the 2010 Schwingfest, courtesy of Swissinfo:
Stone throwing is just that: throwing big heavy stones. In the above video, there's also a clip of that.
Hornussen is described as a mix of golf and baseball, and I had never heard of it before reading storied about the Schwingfest. Here's another video explaining hornussen, also from Swissinfo:
I think these traditions are so interesting and Swiss! It almost makes me wish I had decided to go check it out... But, then I remember those crowds, and realize that it was probably for the best that I didn't! Yesterday I actually got as close as Solothurn and Biel (in the train) to Burgdorf, and the fans that came onto the train were crazy! One group of pensioners, in particular, was SUPER sloshed, wearing leis and rainbow wigs, and yelling up and down the length of train car. So not Swiss, which seems ironic, given how Swiss Schwingfest is!
