Illnau's Turnip Lantern Parade: Two Starting Points – and Three Dates, Only One of Which Is in the Calendar

Illnau-Effretikon is a municipality made of two villages, and the parade turns that into a choreography rather than a compromise: Unterillnau and Oberillnau assemble separately, each in its own street, and walk towards each other until both reach the school. Newly moved in and typing «Illnau» into a map, you stand a fair chance of arriving at the wrong one of the two.

The finest detail sits in a subordinate clause of the dataset: at both meeting points there is singing before setting off, accompanied by the SJMIE. Not during the procession, but before it — standing still, in the dark, before anything moves. It is the moment parents recount afterwards, and it happens twice at once in two streets.

And then there is the matter of dates. The parents' association has arranged the evening so that you can come prepared — but the preparation has windows of its own: the turnip sale lasts two hours on a single Saturday morning.

On 5 November 2026, besides Illnau, one other parade in the calendar sets off; the densest evening of the season is 7 November 2026, with 6 parades at once. That metric comes from the ConvivaPlus calendar and can only be calculated because every parade has a documented date — read at a first-hand source (organiser or municipality), never carried over from last year.

In the canton of Zurich the ConvivaPlus calendar lists 12 parades; nationwide, 23 entries with 19 documented dates. The season runs from 30 October 2026 to 28 November 2026.