Easter in Switzerland

Copyright: novascotiamiss 2013

During last year's Spring vacation in Switzerland, we visited the alpine farm restaurant Brestenegg which is located on the Ahornalp above the village of Eriswil. The long road up the mountain is narrow and windy but the view over Central Switzerland with its hilly terrain and sloping pastures is well worth it. No wonder, the Ahornalp is a popular destination for day trippers who want to get away from it all. The only noise you will hear up here comes from the bells of grazing cows and the happy croaking of free-range chickens.

At first impression, visitors may mistake the Alpwirtschaft Brestenegg for a working farm, due to the smelly piles of cow manure that surround the parking lot. Like many alpine restaurants in Switzerland, Brestenegg is not only a cattle farm but also a rustic restaurant that serves home-cooked food and coffee laced with farmer's brandy. This place is definitely not for vegetarians or people on a diet as the simple menu mainly consists of home-fries with meat followed by huge meringues dolloped with farm-fresh whipped cream. No wonder most patrons dilute the cholesterol boost with a Coffee Schnapps.

But the food was not the center of attraction that day. We were greeted by a man-sized Easter Bunny made out of hay and hundreds of fragile egg shells, a colorful assortment of spring flower arrangements, Easter Wreaths made out of eggs and all kinds of other lovely decorations. A local man called Alois Peter from a nearby village had put together this amazing Easter Exhibition from natural products such as hay, twigs, bushes and eggs that he had been collecting and draining over years. Later on he told us that it had taken him 2 days to set up everything since most of his artwork consists of fragile egg shells. Especially the transportation of the Egg Bunny had caused him major headaches mainly, because it didn't fit into his car and because it had to be wrapped into various protective layers of foam. Alois proudly pointed out the different shades of colors of his egg shells. The white and the brown eggs had been easy to collect but his main pride were the ones ranging from a chocolate brown to a pale green. These had been laid by rare heritage breeds. During the years, Alois had been pricking and draining hundreds of eggs to be made into beautiful artwork. The great thing about blown-out eggs is, that they keep for years, so his only concern is that some of them might get broken. As one of the major components of a Swiss Easter is the breaking and eating of hard boiled eggs, Alois had also filled a nest with exquisitely decorated eggs. His mother had made a dye out of onion peels and his sister had helped him wrap them with herbs before boiling them in the natural dye.