Räbechilbi in Richterswil

11/10/2025

Mark's sister, Karen, and her husband, Steve, flew from the US to Switzerland to celebrate their granddaughter Chloe's 8th birthday. I decided to see them all in Switzerland, and it just happened to coincide with an interesting and peculiar festival in the village (Richterswil) where I would be staying. The festival was called Räbechilbi.

Lucerne

When Chloe and Owen were in school on the first full day of my visit, Karen, Steve and I decided to take a day trip to Lucerne. We had all been to this Swiss mountain town on individual trips year ago, but it still retained its Swiss appeal.

Happy Birthday to Chloe!

The primary motivation for this trip was to celebrate the 8th birthday of my niece Lindsey's daughter, Chloe. We are lucky that Lindsey and her family are so close to us in Portugal, and we get the opportunity to see them fairly regularly.

Räbechilbi

The Festival of Lights at St. Martin's Day (Räbechilbi) is said to have its origins in a peasant thanksgiving offering for bringing in the last crops before the approaching winter. The women from the mountain village walked with the Räbe, a source of light and warmth at the same time, through the dimly lit streets to the village for the thanksgiving service.

Every year, around 25 tons of beets are planted and harvested in the Zurich area especially for the parade. The turnips and candles are used to light a wide variety of floats which are paraded in a circular route about the town. Residents of the parade route are obliged to decorate their houses and extinguish the lights. The owner of my B&B brought fake turnips with votive candles to be put in the windows of my room. As it was quite cold out that evening, so we decided to stay in my room to watch the parade. We could see it from two different directions.