Jodlerfest

Hi again,

In this post, I am going to talk about Jodlerfest (a Swiss traditional festival).
This yearly festival was held from 26-28th June, in Dagmersellen, a small city close to Luzern.
The gang (Helen, Judith, Alireza, Helen's dad and I) went to this place.
It was almost 30 minutes drive from Helen's parents' place.
I guess Alireza and I were the rare non-Swiss people there.
This festival is about some really historical traditions of the people who lived in this area.
Before going into the details, it is worth mentioning that the 3 cantons around the Luzern lake (canton is like a district or maybe state) located in this area are the ones came to agreement to be united as a solo country. This is what I got from this website:
(http://www.switzerland.isyours.com)


The mountainous center of Swiss German-speaking Switzerland is called “primitive” because this is where it all began. In 1291, three small communities united around the Lucerne Lake. The Rütli Oath united Uri, Unterwalden and Schwyz (which later gave name to its country in German: Schweiz) against the Austrian rulers and was the foundation of Switzerland. This part of Switzerland is full of breathtakingly beautiful mountains,

Jodlerfest
Singing

lakes and valleys and is a political mosaic of scarcely populated cantons.


It turns out that this part is being stereotyped as being more conservative people and I have heard that people from other parts of Switzerland make fun of them by saying that they are "primitive Swiss". :-)
There where a lot of people. But not that many where we could barely walk.
An open area plus a couple of churches were designated to this festival.
Later, I realized that this festival was turned into a competition between the people from different cities (I am not sure if it was the cities, villages or the cantons).
Almost 30-40% of the people around, were wearing some special costume. You might be able to recognize it in the pictures. For women, long skirts and shirt with long sleeves. I guess it was in a way appropriate for them to be able to enter the church.
Men also were wearing special hats and jacket. The color combination were interesting.
I guess the average age of the people was more that 45 or so. I am not sure if a lot of young people are really intereseted in sitting still for a long period listening to slow (but beautiful though!) singing and playing the Alphorns.
You could also tell that, since it was also Helen's first time in this festival! Being Swiss and 20's years. She never came to this festival. It was also funny, cause Helen told Alireza that she thought the singing was cool and nice. And Alireza right away answered: "If you liked it, it means that you are getting old too!". :-)
He later told me that he was worried if he offended her! You know always the myth for women!
Do not remind them that they are getting old! Or you are in serious trouble.

Now, about the festival. If I remember everything right, it included at least 3 major sections.

1- Singing (in the church)
2- Playing the Alphorn
3- Swinging the Swiss flag.

I guess you can imagine how the singing went. The groups of at least two people to 10 (or maybe more) were singing in Swiss-German. So, I did not have any clue what they were singing about. Alireza told me that some of the songs are so localized (based on the people's dialect) that his Swiss friend had a lot of problems understanding a song from a band coming from another canton.
There were 3 referees sitting on the top of a stage in the middle of the crowd. Each of them took almost 5 minutes. It was clear that some people coming from the same city were cheering for their band really round once they were finished.
We kept going back and forth between 3 places. No place to sit inside the churches since they were full.
We had lunch at a local restaurant. We had a swiss meal which I do not remember the name. All I can remember was a lot of cheese and pasta! I could not finish and and asked for someone to help me.
Also, one famous soft drink in Switzerland is called Rivella. To my taste, it is something between sprite and cocacola.
After the lunch, we went to the Alphorn, In an open area, individuals and also groups were playing this Swiss traditional musical instrument. A very long pipe! This is the only thing I can describe. Just see the pictures yourselves. The music was very slow. In some sense, you could easily fall sleep after 0 minutes or so! I guess except me and Helen's dad, everyone else took a short nap. :-)
And finally, we went to the most interesting part (my opinion though!).
Swinging the Swiss flag.

Individual or two paricipants, could stand still. There were two circles around each person which shows the zone they can move to.
The goal is that:

1- Using only one hand, hold and swing the flag (even through it up and catch it again) all the time without loosing it.
2- The flag should not touch any part of your body except the hand you are holding it in.
3- When you try to catch the falling flag, do not step outside the zones.

There were 8 referees and almost all the time they were taking notes. It was more clear that when the person do some fancy moves, they were more interested in analyzing the move.
There were two individuals who were really good. And also a two-playered team did a good performance.

That was a long day for us.
Just forgot to say that almost all the guys there had long beard.

I guess that was all about this festival. Two Iranians watched the whole festival.
After this festival, we went to the Luzern festival which I talked about it before.

Good night.
Momo

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