A lantern parade

Last night was the Samiclaus Umzug in our village - a lantern parade with Samiclaus and Schmutzli (his scary side kick). A fairly accurate explanation of who Samiclaus actually is can be found here (and thanks to another expat Fiona for posting the link on her Blog).

Sofie has been excited about this day for weeks. She has been working on her lantern in class, and this year their lanterns were actually lit by real candles. Naturally being her mother I was thrilled at the thought of my excited 6 year old carrying a paper lantern, with a whole bunch of other over excited kids, whilst wearing warm (but flammable) clothing, all with lanterns containing live, naked flame. Clearly at the tender age of 6 she is totally old enough to be responsible for not setting herself (or her friends) on fire.

Obviously I offered a battery powered tea light alternative, which was quickly dismissed. On the day of the parade when Sofie came home and announced her teacher wanted a couple of Mum's to bring lighters along so they could relight any candles that went out during the parade, I may have muttered that he should have been asking for mothers to come equipped with fire blankets to extinguish the burning children, but I guess I am just over anxious like that.
For those who are interested, a standard fire blanket slips easily inside any normal handbag.....

Anyway enough of my parental paranoia.
Th lantern parade was fun (mainly because no one was seriously burned). Sofie marched with her class, and Emily and I joined in the general rabble of followers, with Emily carrying her Pooh Bear lantern form last year (with a nice, safe, battery powered tea light inside).

We all ended up in the local church, where the kids sang songs and recited rhymes for Samiclaus. The theory is that if they do this well Samicluas will give them a reward, and if not Schmutzli (scary sidekick) will beat them or take them away into the woods in his sack. Obviously we seriously play down the whole 'child abuse and abduction' aspect of this fun family festival.
In between the songs there were several talks about behavior and expectations, whilst Schmutzli stood up the front and looked slightly menacing.

But thankfully all ended well, no one got whipped, and everyone got hot chocolate and a Samiclaus shaped bread.
Phew.

And did I mention that no one set themselves on fire either?