Spring Festival in Zurich

Just turned the page of my Lonely Planet calendar to July. The location for July is Switzerland, and the picture on the 11th caught my eye. Its a picture of a snowman on fire, the caption is "Spring Festival, Zurich". I was curious, so I googled.

Found this:

Monday is the high-point of the festival with a two-and-a-half-hour-long procession of the 26 guilds to the large park in front of the Zurich Opera House. There, precisely at 6 pm a towering pile of wood is set alight. On top of the wood is the so-called Böögg, a snowman-shaped figure packed with firecrackers and representing winter. As the flames creep up towards the Böögg, members of the three mounted guilds ride three times around the fire. To the cheers of the public, the Böögg begins to blow apart. As soon as the head explodes, winter is said to be officially over. This original spectacle, which is watched by tens of thousands of excited people, is accompanied by the traditional Sechseläuten in March. Customs & Traditions in Switzerland

Thought that was pretty cool :-)