Illnau's Turnip Lantern Parade: Two Starting Points – and Three Dates, Only One of Which Is in the Calendar
In a calendar, Illnau's parade looks like one evening. It is in fact three appointments with three separate deadlines: a turnip sale lasting two hours, a voucher pre-sale cheaper than the till on the night — and only then the parade. Note just the date and you turn up on 5 November without a turnip and pay more for supper.
📅 Start time, meeting point — and what the organiser actually published
Illauer-Räbeliechtli-Umzug
confirmedThursday, 5 November 2026 · 1 day
- Start
- 18:00
- Meeting point
- Unterillnau: Hagenstrasse vor dem Tageshort · Oberillnau: Gstückstrasse
- Destination
- Schule Illnau
- Food and drink
- Würstli, Suppe, Kuchen, Glühwein und Punsch bei der Schule
- Organiser
- Elternverein Illnau
At both meeting points there is singing before the start – with musical accompaniment by the SJMIE.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Illauer-Räbeliechtli-Umzug | Thu 5 Nov | 18:00 | 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.
- Illnau-Effretikon · IllnauIllauer-Räbeliechtli-Umzug
🔎 What sets this parade apart from every other one
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. The voucher pre-sale runs eleven days and is explicitly cheaper than the till on the night. Both are on the association's site and in no events calendar — there, only 5 November appears.
What made you miss the pre-sale?
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🎯 How not to end up in the dark at the wrong meeting point
Illnau is three appointments. Here are all three, in the order they fall due.
- 120–30 October: food vouchers at Illnau libraryThe pre-sale is cheaper than the till on site. An eleven-day window; after that you pay full price on the night — the only money-saving tip on this page, and it costs nothing but a detour to the library.
- 2Sat 31 October, 9–11: turnip saleAt the «Schmitte da Nino» restaurant, two hours, a single Saturday morning. Miss it and you must source a turnip elsewhere — the parade is five days later.
- 3Pick the right one of the two startsUnterillnau: Hagenstrasse in front of the day-care centre. Oberillnau: Gstückstrasse. Both at 18:00. There is no «main» meeting point — you go to your own village's.
- 4Come a little early for the singingBoth groups sing before setting off, accompanied by the SJMIE. Arrive at 17:58 and you have lit the turnip but missed the part everyone remembers.
🗺️ Where this parade sits in the season
In the canton of Zurich the ConvivaPlus survey lists 12 parades; nationwide, 22 entries with 16 documented dates. The season runs from 30 October 2026 to 14 November 2026.
On 5 November 2026, besides Illnau, 1 other recorded parades set off; the densest evening of the season is 6 November 2026, with 5 parades at once. That metric comes from the ConvivaPlus survey and can only be calculated because every parade has a documented date — read at the organiser's own source, never carried over from last year.
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 municipality is made of several villages and neither should have to follow the other. Illnau solves it with two simultaneous meeting points and one shared destination; in the city of Zurich, by contrast, each neighbourhood runs its own parade on its own evening. The survey lists 12 parades in the canton of Zurich.
All parades in the canton of Zurich →It depends on the place. Illnau sells turnips on a Saturday morning; hollowing them out remains the family's job. Miss the Saturday morning and you still have five days in Illnau to find one yourself.
Every verified parade →The parade itself lasts about an hour. In Illnau the time at the school comes on top — with soup, cake and punch the parade becomes an evening rather than an item on the programme.
The ConvivaPlus verdict
Illnau is the best-organised evening in this survey — and the one where you can get most wrong if you read only the parade date. Turnip sale, voucher pre-sale and parade are three appointments with three deadlines, and two of them have passed before the third begins.
In return you get something no other place in the dataset offers in this form: there is singing before the start at both meeting points, accompanied by the SJMIE — elsewhere at most one of the groups sings. Take the preparation seriously and you get the whole evening; skip it and you get an hour of it.
Freshness note: Turnip sale, pre-sale window and prices come from the Elternverein Illnau (as of 10 September 2026). How many turnips are available on the Saturday morning is not stated — arriving early is the safe option.
Check the latest: ConvivaPlus Turnip Lantern Dataset 2026 – Illnau-Effretikon · Illnau →
- ◆The voucher pre-sale is the only money-saving tip in the entire vein. No other entry in this survey states that the catering is cheaper in advance than at the till. Eleven days, Illnau library — and nobody who sticks to the events calendar will ever learn of it.
- ◆Two hours for the turnips: the sale runs on a single Saturday morning, 9 to 11. That is not an opening time, it is a window — and it falls five days before the parade, which is exactly when most families are not yet thinking about lanterns at all.
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In Illnau, Unterillnau and Oberillnau set off separately and both sing before moving – accompanied by the SJMIE, at the same time in two streets.
Discussion
3 voices from the community
De Bon-Vorverkauf i de Bibliothek isch würkli günstiger, das wüssed erstuunlich wenig. Mir hole immer für d ganz Familie, das lohnt sich.
Wichtig für Zuezogeni: Unterillnau und Oberillnau sind zwei verschideni Träffpünkt. Mir sind s erste Mal a de falsche Stell gstande und hend de Zug vo wiitem gseh.
S Singe vor em Loslaufe isch das, wo bliibt. D Chind kenned d Lieder us de Schuel und plötzlich singed alli zäme im Dunkle. Gänsehut.
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🏮 Turnip lantern parade · 10 September 2026