The Swiss Misses and I ventured with my friend, Brandi, from church to an Alpabzug in Schuepfheim (near Luzern) today.  An Alpabzug is the parade of the cows coming down from the mountain pastures from feeding during the summer.  The great thing about this tradition is it’s a real tradition, not just for tourists.  Even the little town we live in has one.  This has been on my must-see list of things I want to do before leaving Switzerland.  Have a gander at some of the pictures from the parade:

Alphorns

One of the ways the cows/goat farmers would communicate with other farmers or their homes was by yodeling or with an Alphorn.  The sound carries quite far, but isn’t obnoxiously loud.  We got to hear both yodeling and Alphorns, but only saw the yodelers from a distance among all the market stalls (bottom right).

The Cows, Their Bells, and Traditional Swiss Dress

One of the things that surprised me when I first lived here was that the cows really do wear bells all the time.  It’s not just for show or for the tourists.  You can hear them clanging anytime you walk by, often even when they are a good way up the mountains. The normal bells are much smaller and a lot less fancy than the bells below, however.  The ones below are “show” bells only for special occasions.   The really big bells you see in some of the pictures easily run CHF 800 – 1000 (USD 1000 – 1200).  Many have been passed down for generations.

All of these cows are owned and led through the town by a family from the surrounding area, usually displaying a sign at the beginning of the next set of cows.  Check out the mountain boots on these girls!  Now these are mountain people!  While you can’t see it in most of the pictures, they pretty much all were wearing very sturdy shoes.

Even the goats and tractors get their moment in glory.

I’m not sure why this guy was carrying these bells (and ringing them), but they were pretty fancy-schmancy.  Dangling earrings were the thing for many of the men-folk.

To Market

Swiss cows are primarily raised for their dairy (as opposed to beef).  So how do the farmers sell all that lovely cheese and butter they make?  Most towns have a market square and a community farmers market.  They don’t bring the cheese and butter to the square this way any longer, but it was interesting seeing how it probably used to be done – on the back.  The round slabs are cheese; the squares are butter (pretty sure it was all local, fresh cheese and butter).

And where were we during all the hullabaloo?  After hearing a lot but hardly seeing anything, the sun got hot and people left our little spot.  So, we managed to sit on the ground at the very front with all the kiddos on my lap.  I guess when you’re only two feet high, crowds and lots of loud bells are a little frightening.  Oh, and we had one photo request.  As we’ve learned in the past, we are also a tourist attraction.  I’m pretty sure this picture looks identical to the one the lady took, since it was right before my friend took ours.

Annika:  What do cows say when they get up?

Me:  I don’t know.  What?

Annika:  Good moo-ning!