The Bern Onion Festival

It’s called Zibelemärit, or Onion Market. Everywhere you look it’s onions, onions, onions and garlic. Garlands, wreathes, bouquets, sculptures … you name it!

There are many onion sellers, but there are many onion buyers, too!

It should be called the Onion and Confetti Festival – everyone throws confetti at everyone else. The must-have accessory this year was the Catapult Confetti Gun, demonstrated by this firing squad.

The streets are alive with the sound of music … there’s the (mega) cow bell band, the yodelist with wooden megaphone and the alphorn. Heidi is wearing an “Onion Festival necklace.” They look like pearl onions, but are really candy.

“Bern” means “bear,” and it’s the city’s symbol, not the onion. They’ve had bears at the Bärengraben since 1480. Here is Ursus arctos and Ursus topiarius