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http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/swiss-alpine-tradition-of-silvesterclaus-brightens-dark-winter-a-875214.html
Local Swiss men in the Alpine region of Appenzell don elaborate costumes to celebrate the New Year. They are called the Silvesterchläuse, or "New Year's Clauses." There are three kinds of costumes. The first, shown here, are die Schöne (the beautiful). They include women's dresses with white aprons and elaborate headgear.
At 5 a.m. on a winter morning, Switzerland's mountainous northeastern Appenzell region is still pitch black and bitterly cold. But the lights are already on in a few taverns, where locals are finishing their preparations for an old New Year's tradition, the Silvesterchläuse, or "New Year's Clauses."
Each group, called a Schuppel, consists of five to eight men who don knee britches or women's dresses with white aprons. They carefully put on their cotton caps, white gloves and smiling masks with small flowers in the corners of their mouths. They finish off the ensemble with large cowbells around their shoulders, topped by headpieces the size of wagon wheels.
Miniature rural scenes are portrayed on the headgear with tiny carved figures shown going about their daily tasks, with the men sometimes wearing an entire pastoral scene on their heads. The leader of the Schuppel, known as a Vorroli, wears 13 bells on his chest and back and a headpiece so large that he can barely waddle through the door to get outside. When they are finally dressed, the group makes its way through the darkness to their first farm.
Time passes at a different pace in Urnäsch, a small village in the Swiss canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden at the base of the landmark peak Säntis, and one of the villages where the Silvesterchlaus tradition is held. Here the New Year is celebrated not only on Dec. 31, but again nearly two weeks later in mid-January. It's not entirely clear whether this unique medieval tradition has pagan or Christian origins, though it has never been particularly popular with the church.
Local Swiss men in the Alpine region of Appenzell don elaborate costumes to celebrate the New Year. They are called the Silvesterchläuse, or "New Year's Clauses." There are three kinds of costumes. The first, shown here, are die Schöne (the beautiful). They include women's dresses with white aprons and elaborate headgear.
At 5 a.m. on a winter morning, Switzerland's mountainous northeastern Appenzell region is still pitch black and bitterly cold. But the lights are already on in a few taverns, where locals are finishing their preparations for an old New Year's tradition, the Silvesterchläuse, or "New Year's Clauses."
Each group, called a Schuppel, consists of five to eight men who don knee britches or women's dresses with white aprons. They carefully put on their cotton caps, white gloves and smiling masks with small flowers in the corners of their mouths. They finish off the ensemble with large cowbells around their shoulders, topped by headpieces the size of wagon wheels.
Miniature rural scenes are portrayed on the headgear with tiny carved figures shown going about their daily tasks, with the men sometimes wearing an entire pastoral scene on their heads. The leader of the Schuppel, known as a Vorroli, wears 13 bells on his chest and back and a headpiece so large that he can barely waddle through the door to get outside. When they are finally dressed, the group makes its way through the darkness to their first farm.
Time passes at a different pace in Urnäsch, a small village in the Swiss canton of Appenzell Ausserrhoden at the base of the landmark peak Säntis, and one of the villages where the Silvesterchlaus tradition is held. Here the New Year is celebrated not only on Dec. 31, but again nearly two weeks later in mid-January. It's not entirely clear whether this unique medieval tradition has pagan or Christian origins, though it has never been particularly popular with the church.
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