HARVEST

FESTIVAL IN
SWITZERLAND

BY Ayna Alekperova
 Harvest Festival in Switzerland
The population of 33,000 grows to over 300,000 every September during its annual three day
long Fête des Vendanges — Grape Harvest Festival. The festivities signify the end of the wine
harvest for the year. ... For three days and nights, Neuchâtel teems with music, dancing, lights,
clinking wine glasses and laugher.
Each year, the start of the grape harvests in the
Neuchâtel Country is celebrated on the last weekend in
September. For three days, traffic is banished from the
city centre so that revellers can make merry in the
accustomed style amid an ambience of light, music and
laughter. The grand night-time procession with
“Guggenmusik“ (or “Happy Music“) takes place on the
Friday night, but groups in costume are out and about all
through the festival. The children's fancy-dress parade, a
joyful and colourful event, is traditionally held on the
Saturday afternoon. The Sunday afternoon floral
procession also attracts a vast crown of onlookers.
Punctuated by fanfares and peppered with humorous
touches by some of the groups in costume, this parade
carries on the tradition of the procession of the grape-
harvest carts, decorated with flowers and loaded with the
wine-growers' tools, which takes place at the end of the
grape harvest.
Folk dancing in Central Switzerland
Public dance events underwent a major functional change in the course of the 20th century. In many rural
areas of Central Switzerland at the end of the 19th century, they were only permitted on a few days of the
year, in particular during Fasnacht and at fairs and weddings. After the Second World War, they evolved into
one of many available leisure activities under the influence of global dance styles such as rock and roll,
breakdance and salsa. Traditional dances – in particular the Scottish, polka, waltz, mazurka, foxtrot and
Marsch-Fox (a combination of a march, a Scottish dance and foxtrot) styles – began increasingly to evoke a
sense of home. Since the 1930s, the preservation of folk dancing traditions has been primarily the work of
Trachtenvereine (associations for traditional costumes). In the 162 Central Swiss municipalities there are
currently 904 such associations. They perform their dances mainly at folk festivals, association celebrations,
traditional events and the Urschweizer Trachtentag (a folk festival at which people wear traditional
costumes). One unique dance form is the traditional 'Bödälä' (also k
 What songs do they song in
Switzerland at Harvest Festival
Repondez- moi
Viver Senza Tei
What food do they eat in Harvest
festival in Switzerland
 Names of food that they eat

.Fried apple
.vanilla custard
.garlic bread
.Magenbrot cookies and more
 GAMES AT HARVEST FESTIVAL

● Feed the Pumpkin. To play this game, draw a large pumpkin on a piece of poster board.
Pumpkin Broom Race.
Treasure in a Haystack.

Leaf Pile Race

Harvest Obstacle Course.

● Candy Corn Spoon Race.

Thank you for Watching