St.Nicholas Parade: Popular Local Tradition of Central Switzerland

Friday December 5th, 2025 -- In several places in Central Switzerland, St.Nicholas Day is celebrated with a traditional parade called "Klausjagen" on the eve of St.Nicholas (Dec.6th) which includes cracking of bullwhips, brass instruments playing a repetitive 3-note tune, hundreds of locals swinging large cow-bells on their thighs in a very loud and consistent primordial rhythm, and most importantly, the display of the bishop-hat-shaped headdresses lighted by real candles to showcase the intricate, hand-made designs (religious in nature) that glow like stained-glass windows. It is not sure where this tradition has its origins, but is most likely over 1000 years old, based on pagan rituals of driving out evil spirits of darkness.

The most famous of these parades is in the town of Küssnacht on Lake Lucerne, which now attracts over 30,000 people every year. (There are smaller and more familiar such parades in several towns all around Lake Luzern and some other places in Central Switzerland, but the "Pièce(s) de Resistance" (so to speak) definitely are the Bishops Hats (Iffelen), over 200 of them carried through the town at night, where the town lights are turned off to enhance the full effect of this beautiful display). The parade lasts 2½ hours with several breaks, as the head-dresses are heavy and so are the bells. (A deafening procession of over 1000 men, residents of the village only). When the parade is done at 10:30 p.m., the participants spend all night in local pubs until early morning when they head home, ringing their bells once again.

Additionally, the town of Küssnacht has organized a children's parade at 2 p.m. in the afternoon, most ringing the bells, several cracking whips (not easy to get that cracking sound and requires lots of practice) and the smallest ones proudly wearing the headpieces they crafted in school. Of course St.Nicholas (Samichlaus) joins the parade, accompanied by his assistants called Schmutzli, all in black.

As I had been spending the week in my Aunt's former house in the same village, I was able to attend both events, and even though those head pieces are magnificent, I have to admit I enjoyed the children's parade more, as 1) there were fewer spectators, and 2) because it took place in daylight, you could enjoy the participants so much more....

PART I: The Children's Parade: Started at 2:15 p.m. and I enjoyed this thoroughly, as it was fun to watch the kids participating, especially the talented bullwhip crackers!

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Earlier in the morning, the kids at the nearby school did a test run in preparation for the parade, and passed right below my house!

Many businesses have displays of the intricate headdresses in their show windows! (These are very small ones).

Spectators and family members are already waiting on the main road in the old part of town, where the children will take their first break.

The parade starts at the upper part of the village (Oberdorf) with the children who will wield their bullwhips (Geisselchlöpfer), having practiced all month of November during breaks in the school day!

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Display of cracking the bullwhip. I recognized some of the children who passed by my house earlier in the morning. I was especially impressed by the strong little girl participating in an exercise dominated by the village boys!

After the bullwhips came the smaller children with the "Bishop Hats" (small and simple version of what is displayed at night in the dark!)

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The little kids proudly displaying the Bishop Hats they crafted in school!

Then comes the "Samichlaus", Switzerland's version of Santa Claus, with his helpers called the "Schmutzli", who hand out treats to the children among the spectators. (Their faces are totally blackened—once upon a time with coal—which I find rather intimidating, and not the pleasant experience that St.Nicholas should represent!)

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Arrival of Samichlaus

Now most fascinating of all come the bell ringers (Trychler). First come the larger boys in excellent formation with excellent rhythm.

Behind the big boys are the smaller children, and their rhythm wasn't so great!

Even some little ones joined the parade!

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The repetitive sound of the bells is loud and primordial and vibrates the air!

The kids had a break and then continued on the main road toward the train station. I ran some errands and then found another spot to watch them all pass again. Here are the Bullwhips.... I am amazed that no one in the crowd got in the way of the whips!

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Several of the participants showed off with Bullwhip Solos!

The little children are looking for their family members in the crowd!

Samichlaus and his helpers.

And finally, the long procession of bells. Usually I don't like loud noises, but this didn't bother me at all.

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Final line of bell-ringers pass on the main road.

You could tell that the smaller kids at the back were getting tired!

PART II: Main Parade: With over 1500 participants, only men and locals allowed.

The event starts at 8:15 p.m. after a loud cannon shot, and then all the lights in the main part of town near the lake get turned off. The display of fantastic headdresses (Iffele) was superb, but because it was so dark, you could not see the bullwhips nor the over 1000 bellringers walking past. You only heard the noise. My cameras were not good enough for videos in this light, so Internet videos show it better. See the main website at: https://www.klausjagen.ch/

As I headed down to the lake at 8:20 p.m. to wait for the parade to arrive, I spotted this large boat docked at the lakeside, probably a special outing for spectators to the parade.

Some of the first arrivals of the Iffele headdresses onto the Seeplatz (lakeside square).

Beautiful headdresses.

I snuck in a flash photo when the bell-ringers passed, as my camera could not take any proper photos in this light.

Screenshot from the long video (see below) I took as the participants marched down the main road in town.

Screenshot from the long video (see below) I took as the participants marched down the main road in town. This is one of the largest and most fabulous of the headdresses which appears every year in the parade.

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This is a 3-minute video (my video, uploated to YouTube) of the procession of Iffelen (Bishop-hat shaped headdresses) carried by the local men, about 200 in all. There are St.Nicholas processions in many parts of Central Switzerland, but these headdresses are quite unique to the Küssnacht procession.

PART III: Addendum

Here are a few photos which we took on previous visits of the Küssnacht Klausjagen parade, in 2014 and 2019. At a couple of points along the way, the men carrying the headdresses set them down to take a break, and you can view them up close.