BERN - At 3h00 on Monday, the farmers began to gather, bringing with them onions in intricate wreaths, befitting flower arrangements for an annual festival celebrating a vegetable that greatly excites the Swiss.

"I took the day off from work to come here," said Rene, as he and his friends drank their beers.

"We have been coming together as a group for over 10 years," said Rene, who works in the telecommunications industry.

A serious enthusiast, he arrived at 4h00 with six others, who all planned to spend the entire day at the festival.

Businessmen who did not take the day off stopped by, sometimes briefcase in hand, for a quick shopping spree, munching on sausages which they washed down with glasses of beer.

As the hours passed, more people packed several square blocks surrounding the large plaza with the National Bank and parliament buildings, where stand after stand offered everything from fresh produce to scarves and sweaters.

"I come here every year", said George. "I am a seventh-generation farmer specialising in onions."

Like the other vendors, he proudly displayed his wares on the one day of the year when onions reign supreme.

His onion designs, in bouquets or shaped like farmers with straw hats, were developed over generations, but his mother was the most influential.

"My mother was a florist and she really influenced the ideas of how to make the designs," said the onion grower, who traveled from Germany to partake in the event.

Mark, a young man, said he took a vacation day from his office job to sell the goods of a farming family who spent the weeks before the festival creating works of art out of their onions.

"I take the day off because this is so much fun," he said between serving customers their decorative onion tresses.

Purple, yellow and white onions, banded together with garlic and dried flowers to make simple bunches, grand baskets, trolls and smiling snowmen, are the main, but not singular, attraction.

Cheeses, meats and breads are sold from stands along with grilled sausages, quiches and fried and baked foods.

"We have bought all our goods and now we will have some champagne," said Anne, a middle-aged woman, opening her bag to show off the honey, cheeses and of course onions she purchased.

"I have been coming here since I was a little girl," she said.

The Onion Market in Bern is always held on the last Monday of November, a Swiss tradition going back at least 150 years.

The hardest part of the day may be trying to walk through the streets without confetti getting in your glass of hot wine or locally brewed beer.

When school lets out it becomes particularly impossible to escape the children’s confetti. Kids also knock people on the head with plastic squeaking hammers, another tradition.

"All day people throw confetti at each other, they just go crazy," said Ann gleefully, her coat covered in tiny red and silver pieces of paper.

In the proud Swiss fashion, however, littering time is limited.

Within an hour of the festival closing, the cleaning crews get to work on the multicoloured slosh, a mix of the paper, the overnight snow and the rain which fell during the day, leaving hardly a speck of trash behind.

26 November 2008

text: DPA / Shabtai Gold / Expatica