Böögg, by Google Translate

It's that time of year again, Bloggership -- the third Monday of April, when Zurich goes crazy and explodes a giant snowman in order to bid winter goodbye. See our pics from April 2009 here.

This year, we thought you'd provide you with some more information on the infamous Böögg (click to embiggen).Here's what Google Translate has to say:

"The Sechseläuten is in some ways a festive occasion. Zurich goodbye to the long, cold winter nights and looks forward to the warmer seasons. Her spring festival celebrating the city on the Limmat usually during April of the third weekend with a colorful children's parade on Sunday and the actual Sechseläuten parade on Monday. The highlight is the symbolic burning of winter in the form of a snowman - the Böögg. Thousands of costumed guilds and tens of thousands of spectators fill the Sechseläuten weekend, the city of Zurich. Hundreds of thousands in Switzerland follow the Monday parade and the burning of the Böögg on TV - for the last few years, the time that passes from lighting the fire in an explosion of Bööggenkopfs, as an indicator for the weather conditions of the following summer made. Highlights of the festivities on the weekend of April are Sechseläuten the train to the fire of the guilds and guild mutual visits in the evening."

Here's a video of the big explosion!!!