There is a tradition in Switzerland that I wasn’t familiar with until my little boy came along. His daycare had organised the Räbeliechtli night walk in the forest, a chance for parents to go into the forest, to have some soup and sing songs.
The closest I know to this from the UK is carving pumpkins for Halloween. In this case, we got a little white turnip to carve. We were to find a pattern to put on the turnip. We decided on a dinosaur and a little Swedish ghost cartoon (Laban) that my little boy likes. We cut the top of the turnip off, peeled away apart of the skin to show the design and then scooped out the middle.
We placed a little candle inside, added some strings with a bit of pfaffing from my side and voila, we had a lantern. My little boy took the opportunity to run around the flat dragging the ball of string everywhere leaving my husband to pick up the thread – literally.
Off we went into the forest. It was cold and we all sped up to keep warm. After about 10 minutes, my little boy had had enough and was eager to go home so off we went. Nonetheless, it’s great to experience the local traditions, no matter how long we stayed. Have you ever been on a Räbeliechtli walk?