A friend wrote and told me her daughter was thinking of me when she read about a festival in Switzerland where people walk around with onions on their heads. Intrigued, I did a little research and found Zibelemärit Onion Market in Bern on Monday 26th November and Räben-Chilbi Turnip Festival on Saturday 10th November.

Has anyone experienced these festivals and can recommend either of them? Should we organise a social, "meet at Zurich HB with onion/turnip"?

I'm going with Bissig Car Reisen to the Zwiebele Markt in Bern. It will be my first time. And since I'm finally not driving, I'll be definitely trying any alcoholic drinks I see except for the sweet liquor schnapps. Cheers to the onions!

The annual Aarau carrot festival is on this Wednesday! Allegedly the town turns into a "carrot wonderland". Hmm.

Hahaha... Will definitely check this out and I'll make sure to bring my camera. Any ideas where the event/s is/are taking place?

I will go to the Bern one, but it starts at dawn, and stops well before 7pm so be early rather than late

	Quote:	India
	... and Räben-Chilbi Turnip Festival on Saturday 10th November. Has anyone experienced these festivals and can recommend either of them? Should we organise a social, "meet at Zurich HB with onion/turnip"?

That would be the Räbechilbi in Richterswil:

Die traditionelle Lichternacht am Zürichsee. Erleben Sie ein märchenhaftes Richterswil, das mit tausenden von Kerzen erstrahlt.

It starts at 18:30. Not only the parade is worth seeing but also the town, where many of the streets and windows are lit up that night with Räbeliechtli (trans: turnip lamps).

Doing a social at Richterswil would be difficult because of the mass of crowds and the darkness. However:

	Quote:	India
	where people walk around with onions on their heads

... try that with turnips on your head and you'd be pretty easy to spot.

The onion market stops at around 7 (I think), but the drinking sure doesn't

The Rueblimart in Aarau is held in Grabenstr, which is where markets are normally held in Aarau, if you are familiar with the town, and apparently goes from the crack of dawn (6am) until 7pm. I'm looking forward to it, but I am keeping my expectations extremely low!

So how were the carrots and turnips?

The carrots were kind of wacky. It was really just a market, a lot bigger than the normal markets, but I'd say it was about 10% carrot-related, 90% non-carroty. There were carrot cakes, carrot soup, carrot bread, carrot decorations (made of both real and fake carrots), carrot art, carrots, carrot crepes, carrot cheese, and even the odd stall-holder dressed as a carrot (which was great). It was fun, but not necessarily the best vegetable festival opportunity. And I still don't know anything about the history behind it.

Oh I'm intrigued. This is so funny. I did a quick search and found:

http://www.carrotmuseum.co.uk/festival.html

there is more than one carrot festival around the world! And there seems to be a bit of a fan club for the carrot. They say that these festivals celebrate the successful harvest of the carrots! Fascinating.