Richterswil Rabechilbi Festival

Well its got to be better than eating them!

Räblichilbi - Zürich 2 by phyzzygal, on Flickr

When: 2nd Saturday in November.
Where: Richterswil, Switzerland.

Every year in the small village of Richterswil on Lake Zurich in Switzerland, there’s a very special celebration to mark the end of the harvest. The Rabechilbi festival is Europe’s largest turnip festival and celebrates the humble vegetable with a huge parade of elaborate floats decorated with illuminated turnips.

Paraders carry decorated turnips lit with candles and all the buildings along the parade route are lit up with intricately carved turnip lanterns. In all some 27 tons of turnips and 50,000 candles are used.

The festival is held on the 2nd Saturday in November, the hour-long parade begins at 6:30 p.m but there are stalls with food and drink earlier in the day and the turnips are generally lit from around 5:30pm when it gets dark.

Have you been to the Richterswil Rabechilbi festival yourself? If so, please tell us all about it! You can share your pics and videos on our facebook page too! Or if you just want to say hi, or leave a comment for any other reason, we’d love to hear from you.

Food & Drink

The food is not generally turnip related but you can warm yourself with a glass of gluhwein and some and bratwurst.

Travel to Switzerland

Book flights and hotels in Zurich with ebookers.com. Richterswil is just a short trip down lake Zurich. You may need to search for flights and hotels separately.

Dates / venues may be subject to change or cancellation. Distances may be straight-line estimates. Please verify information before booking.

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Enjoy your trip! And when you’re home we’d love you to come back and tell us all about it!