The ‘runner’ on the egg-carrying race, where he must return the eggs to the basket one by one faster than the rider circling the village on horseback, during the ancient spring custom in the village of Effingen, canton Aargau, in 2016.
Urs Flüeler / Keystone
When spring is just around the corner, winter is driven away in many places around the world. In northwestern Switzerland a special custom is practised: the Eierläset. Eggs take centre stage, but every village celebrates this ancient fertility custom a little differently: from sporty to very boisterous.
Raw eggs lie in a row of small piles of sawdust in the middle of the village street. As runners race back and forth to pick up one egg after the other, they decide on victory or defeat with risky throws: only if the team that symbolises spring wins can life triumph over the cold and spring finally arrive in the village.
In some villages it is children, in others members of various clubs, who race against each other as runners. The rules vary from village to village. Usually one to several lanes are laid out, each with 80 to 100 of these piles of sawdust in which an egg is embedded.
Confident of victory, the various figures representing spring make their way to the competition on the village street in Auenstein, in 2019.
Thomas Kern
What all competitions have in common is that the runner has to fetch the eggs one after the other and then throw them to a catcher. They try to catch the eggs in a wide basket lined with chaff.
If an egg falls to the ground or breaks, the runner has to run the course again as a penalty lap without being allowed to take a new egg. The winner is the first group to deposit all the eggs with the catcher.
“However, occasional corrective action is taken to ensure that spring prevails,” according to a detailed description on the Living TraditionsExternal link website of the Federal Office of Culture.
Age-old local custom
The centuries-old custom of Eierläset – also known as Eierleset or Eierauflesen – is mainly practised in northwestern Switzerland in cantons Aargau, Basel Country and Solothurn.
Similar customs apparently also exist abroad: in the publication Schweizer VolkskundeExternal link (Swiss Folklore), author K. Meuli noted in 1938 that there is evidence from “Switzerland, Tyrol and southern Germany […] also central and northern Germany, for example Schleswig-Holstein, and even in Wallonia and southern France”.
According to various sourcesExternal link, the origins of the Eierläset date back to the Middle Ages and symbolise the beginning of spring and fertility. The egg symbolises the awakening of nature, growth and new beginnings – motifs that were already widespread in pre-Christian cultures.
The main characters have remained the same to this day. A group photo from Effingen in the 1950s.
Keystone / Photopress
Regional diversity: from sporting events to masked dances
In the vast majority of municipalities, the event takes place on White Sunday, the first Sunday after Easter. However, despite the date, the custom has no religious connection.
While the basic principle – the competitive transport of eggs to symbolise the victory of spring over winter – is similar everywhere, there are clear regional differences in the way it is carried out.
In the Basel region and canton Solothurn, the sporting aspect tends to take centre stage. A sporty Eierläset takes place in Therwil in Basel Country, for example, where four groups compete against each other in a relay race:
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The staged battle
Some communities, mainly in canton Aargau, have louder and wilder archaic versions of the custom. One of the most original and best-known festivals of this kind in Switzerland is the Eierläset in the rural village of Effingen in Fricktal, canton Aargau.
In this village, only a single runner competes against a rider who does not have to pick up eggs but has to ride his horse as quickly as possible around a defined circuit. Figures whose masks are still sewn by hand in the old tradition compete alongside them.
Here, the Dürren (xxx, winter) compete against the Grünen (Greens, spring). While the Eierläset is taking place, “the two groups engage in symbolic clashes”, according to Living Traditions.
The Dürren include the Straumuni (straw bull), a monster stuffed with straw that symbolises the hard earth of winter, and the Schnäggehüsler, whose robe is decorated with thousands of real snail shells.
The Grünen – who always win in the end – include the Jasschärtler, a creature hung with playing cards symbolising the joy of human play, and the Tannästler, a figure made of fresh fir branches, which stands for the evergreen forest.
An archive gem from Swiss public television SRF: Eierläset in Effingen, Fricktal (1964) (in German):
Special tasks in modern times
In order to keep the spectacle attractive for spectators, the rules were gradually modernised in the various locations where masked figures do not attack each other.
In many cases, every tenth egg is painted in a different colour to mark a special task. For example, the runner has to cover the distance on a roller board, transport someone from the team in a wheelbarrow or perform a balancing act.
Once spring has ritually won, the festival is far from over. In municipalities such as Effingen or Oeschgen, for example, an “egg sermon” follows: an actor dressed up as a priest climbs onto a wooden pulpit and delivers a satirical speech in which the sins and misfortunes of the people and authorities in the village are mercilessly exposed.
The leading role
Incidentally, the eggs for these festivals are collected door-to-door in most villages by the gymnastics clubs, most of which also organise the festival. However, there are also villages where a company donates the eggs for advertising purposes.
And finally, the eggs have to be used after the Eierläset. What could be more appropriate than a big feast? In many communities, an Eiertätsch (egg dish) is prepared and enjoyed together with the locals – often accompanied by the local brass band.
In this way, the power of the eggs, these symbols of fertility, is passed on to those present from near and far, heralding the arrival of spring.
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Edited by Balz Rigendinger. Translated from German by AI/ts
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