Wettingen turnip lantern parade: the survey's only route through a monastery park
Most turnip lantern parades run along neighbourhood streets — past front gardens, streetlights and parked cars. Wettingen goes through a monastery park: old walls, no street lighting, and the turnips as the only source of light.
📅 Start time, meeting point — and what the organiser actually published
Räbeliechtli-Umzug Wettingen
confirmedSaturday, 7 November 2026 · 1 day
- Start
- 17:30
- Meeting point
- Kiesplatz vor der Klosterkirche
- Destination
- Klosterpark Wettingen
- Food and drink
- Brötli und Tee zum Abschluss
- Organiser
- Familienstern Wettingen
The parade winds through the monastery park, with singing along the way.
Source: To the organiser's page · checked on 6 September 2026
📅 Visit-day check
Pick the day you are free — the answer comes from the verified ConvivaPlus dataset, not from a run you have to work out in your head.
| Session | Run | Opening hours | Evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| Räbeliechtli-Umzug Wettingen | Sat 7 Nov | 17:30 | confirmed |
Calculated from the ConvivaPlus dataset — every row with its own source above.
Each bar is a documented evening. Dark = this parade, light = the nearest ones. A parade lasts an hour and often falls on the same evening as another — read only a date and you miss that the next village sets off at the same minute.
🔎 What sets this parade apart from every other one
A turnip lantern parade lives on the contrast between the light inside the turnip and the darkness around it. On a neighbourhood street that contest is won by the streetlight — it is brighter, it is everywhere, and the turnip becomes decoration. Wettingen sidesteps the problem by taking the parade somewhere with no street lighting at all.
Wettingen monastery is a former Cistercian abbey, dissolved by the Aargau cantonal parliament in 1841; since 1976 its buildings have housed the Kantonsschule Wettingen. In this survey it is the only parade whose route runs through such a site — none of the other 22 recorded places mentions a monastery.
The second difference is smaller and still noticeable: the singing happens on the move, not before setting off. Elsewhere people warm up at the meeting point and then walk in silence. Singing while walking makes for a different evening — the parade is heard before it is seen, and children keep the pace better when there is a song.
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🎯 How not to end up in the dark at the wrong meeting point
In Wettingen the early start is the essential thing — and the one point everything turns on.
- 117:30 is early — the earliest start of the eveningThe three Zurich parades on the same evening only set off at 18:00. For families with small children that is the advantage: you are home correspondingly earlier.
- 2The meeting point is the gravel square, not the churchAssembly on the gravel square in front of the abbey church. Looking inside the monastery means looking in the wrong place.
- 3It really is dark in the parkNo street lighting — which is exactly the appeal. With very small children a second light source in your pocket is worth having for the way back.
- 4Bread roll and tea at the endFrom Familienstern Wettingen. Nothing is published about costs or a voucher system.
🗺️ Where this parade sits in the season
In the canton of Aargau, the ConvivaPlus survey lists 3 parades — considerably fewer than in the canton of Zurich, but with a character of their own: here family centres and parents' associations carry the events, not neighbourhood associations. Nationwide: 22 entries with 16 documented dates.
7 November 2026 is one of the densest evenings of the season: besides Wettingen, 3 further recorded parades set off. The densest evening of all is 6 November 2026 with 5 simultaneous parades — a figure from the ConvivaPlus analysisthat exists only because every date was read at the organiser's own source.
Turnip lantern parades nearby
Frequently asked questions about this parade
Answers from the verified dataset – no date is carried over from last year.
People also ask
Related questions from our magazine
Because the streetlight is the turnip's natural enemy: where it is bright, carved light loses its effect. Unlit routes are therefore rare and valuable — the survey lists 3 parades in the canton of Aargau.
All parades in the canton of Aargau →Start times in the survey run from 17:30 to 19:00. Wettingen, at 17:30, is among the earliest; Oberstrass, at 19:00, sits at the other end — an hour and a half of difference that, with small children, decides the whole evening.
All verified turnip lantern parades →A former Cistercian abbey, dissolved by the cantonal parliament of Aargau in 1841; since 1976 its buildings have housed the Kantonsschule Wettingen. The adjoining park is unlit in November — the reason the parade goes precisely through it.
The ConvivaPlus verdict
Wettingen delivers the image the turnip lantern parade was made for: carved light in real darkness, framed by monastery walls rather than parked cars. That the singing happens on the move reinforces it — you hear the parade before you see it.
For families with small children it is also the most practical parade of the evening: the 17:30 start comes half an hour before the three Zurich parades that same evening, and you are back correspondingly earlier. If you want the late, fully dark departure, Oberstrass is the better fit.
Freshness note: Time, meeting point, route and refreshments come from Familienstern Wettingen (as of 10 September 2026). Nothing is published about weather, costs or where to get turnips; nor how long the walk through the park takes.
Check the latest: ConvivaPlus Turnip Lantern Dataset 2026 – Wettingen →
- ◆The streetlight is the turnip's enemy. A hollowed-out turnip has at best the brightness of a candle — against street lighting it does not stand a chance. The route therefore matters more than the hour: a parade at 19:00 along a lit main road is experienced as brighter than one at 17:30 through an unlit park.
- ◆Singing on the move is not the same as singing beforehand. Three parades in this survey mention singing. Two of them sing at the meeting point before setting off — an opening ritual. Wettingen sings while walking, and that changes the procession: it has a beat, stragglers find their way back, and the route feels shorter than it is.
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Wettingen is the only recorded parade that crosses a monastery site — and the only one where the singing happens along the way rather than before setting off.
Discussion
3 voices from the community
De Wäg dur de Chlosterpark isch würkli öppis anders — die alte Muure, kei Stroosseluecht, nur d Räbe. Mir sind letscht Jahr s erst Mol gsi und hend dänkt: das gits nöd nomol so.
Halb sechsi isch früeh, aber genau richtig für chlini Chind. Um sibni sind mir dehei gsi und niemert het gnörgelet.
Gsunge wird unterwegs, nöd nur am Aafang. Toent chlei, macht aber de ganz Unterschied — d Chind lauft de mit em Liedli statt still hinderenand.
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🏮 Turnip lantern parade · 10 September 2026