Local traditions and culture in Canton de Neuchâtel

The Holiday of the Grape harvests of Neuchâtel

Created in 1925, the Holiday of the Grape harvests of Neuchâtel allows numerous Neuchâtelois du Bas as the Height, as well as in numerous Confederates and foreign to meet itself every last weekend of September to feast.

Supposed to celebrate the end of the grape harvests, the Holiday of the Grape harvests takes place before the grape harvests begin in the vineyard neuchâtelois. This demonstration of joy is one of the most former(old) popular jubilation which the human beings know, because already in Mesopotamia and in Palestine (current Iraq and Israel) the men(people) celebrated the wine, there is 6 ' 000 years old.

The Holiday of the Grape harvests articulated bit by bit around the Synday procession, which during the years seventy became free under the pressure of broadcasts.

The Holiday of the Grape harvests celebrates at three times: Friday evening, on Saturdays and on Sunday afternoon.

On Fridays evenings, the Holiday begins at 6 pm in the lock of offices(desks).

The evening is rather the holiday of Neuchâtelois, which takes advantage of this occasion to find, besides their friends of people that they did not see any more since the last Holiday of the Grape harvests!

Saturday is the traditional day of the costume ball of the children, the cliques(pipe bands) of guggen musik and the parade of brass bands at the stage of Maladière.

Saturday evening is the only evening of the holiday, where streams an important number of tourists of cantons and nearby countries, it is also the moment of the year in the course of which Neuchâtel counts most individuals.

On Sunday afternoon, having crossed(spent) a night réparatrice or slept off their wine, Neuchâtelois or the tourists take advantage of this moment to attend the flowery parade, which sees disentangling about fifty tanks furnished according to a chosen subject one year in advance. Afterward, the holiday continues to end near midnight.

The Holiday of the Grape harvests, besides its processions, his(her) cliques(pipe bands) and brass bands, its merry-go-rounds and its possibilities of meeting, also allows Neuchâtelois to sample next to the good old sausages of veal and raclettes, Vietnamese, Kurdish or Israeli specialities that he(it) have little the occasion to sample during the rest of the year!