The Böög predicted a cool and wet summer on Monday!
You've not heard of the Böög?!

Well, at the end of each Winter the people build a large bonfire and burn the effigy of a snowman (who is named the Böög) whose head is filled with explosives.
Depending on how long it takes for the head to explode, the weather for the coming summer can be predicted.
Or so the story goes.

This year it took just over 26 minutes, meaning poor weather this summer. Anything below 12 minutes means good weather.

I know that the Swiss are reputed to be slow, but I wonder if they have ever considered the fact that the speed a bonfire will burn depends on how it is built, what condition the wood is in and - the weather.
On Monday we had rain and snow, so I can imagine the building of the bonfire to have been rather hasty.
The wood was most likely somewhat wet too. As you can see by the picture, there was a great deal of yellow smoke - I seem to remember from my Boy-Scout-days that that means damp.

The Swiss meteorological office reported that the accuracy of the Böög's weather predictions over the last 50 years has been negligable. He did, however, predict the warm Summer of 2003!

The festival is called Sechseläuten - the ringing of the six o'clock bells.
At the end of Winter the church bells would ring at six pm instead of five pm to inform craftsmen that daylight was coming to an end.
The fact that they could work an hour longer was always celebrated with an enormous festival.

Well, if having to work an hour longer each day isn't reason enough for a celebration, I can't imagine what would be...