Happy – and creepy – New Year in Switzerland!

Whether it’s giving thanks for (or saying good riddance to) 2024 or hoping for a peaceful and prosperous 2025, billions of people around the world will be marking the New Year somehow – and the tradition-loving Swiss are no exception. While many people are happy just to raise a glass of bubbly, others prefer to stuff 12 grapes into their mouths (Spain), wear colour-coded underwear (South America) or throw plates against their neighbours’ doors (Denmark). The Swiss like to hang on to their crockery, but there’s no shortage of quirky – and often mildly alarming – customs, often going back hundreds of years. Fountain-singing in Rheinfelden This might look like something out of The Handmaid’s Tale, but the New Year’s Eve custom of Brunnensingen (fountain-singing) in Rheinfelden, northern Switzerland, dates back to 1541. Back then, locals tried to drive out the plague that was sweeping the country with Christmas carols (as we now know from the Covid pandemic, singing probably wasn’t the ...