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Räbechilbi Turnip Festival, Richterswil, Switzerland

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Nov 13 2006

This small town on Lake Zurich must be ‘the’ place in the world to celebrate the humble turnip or sugar beet. It has nothing to do with eating – the custom of Turnip Fair is said to be based on a legend according to which, in the mid 19th century, the wives of farmers living in the hills above Richterswil used turnip lamps to find their way home from evening church services in the wintertime, and it symbolically marks the transition from autumn to winter. A few days before the Fair, practically the entire population of Richterswil, from schoolchildren to […]

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About this blog

The vast majority of posts in this blog are about quirky & eccentric competitions & festivals. I started it in 2006 in France with a competition I’ll never forget. Where contestants battle it out to become the World Champion Pig Squeeler, or ‘Cri du Cochon’. I had little knowledge back then of quite how far my pursuit of these kind of events would lead me. I’ve travelled all over Britain (and occasionally further afield) to capture our curiosities and quirks. There’s nothing uniquely eccentric about the British, you’ll find people all over the world up to all sorts of weird and wonderful activities, but we do have a remarkable capacity to embrace the madness. ‘A Brit Different’ is the book that was born from it, my labour of love! So what next? There’s always something interesting going on, so watch this space, only time will tell!

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