Alp herdsmen's fairs

The municipalities celebrate Älplerchilbi in the autumn. For 400 years ago it has provided an occasion for expressing thanks for a good, productive summer and an accident-free season up on the alps.

The Älplerchilbi is a centuries-old herdsmen's fair at which the farming community gathers together after the alpine summer to thank God for the gifts received and to celebrate with food, music and dance.

Typical of the tradition is the appearance of the two unruly pagan characters Hude and Läsi (called Christä and Triini in Lungern). These unruly characters hark back to ancient times, when the mountains were inhabited by the what was left of a pagan indigenous population. They helped the new migrant farmers on the alps and were invited to the fair by way of thanks.

Hude and Läsi romp around with the children in the village and utter their coded poems describing the deeds and misdeeds of the locals during the past year in the school yard in the afternoon. The herdsmen and women and their companions in local costume and the invited guests form a colourful ring, with the villagers and visitors behind them. All this takes place in public.