Räbechilbi Richterswil: The World's Largest Turnip Lantern Parade — and the Only One You Pay For
Twenty-one of the recorded turnip lantern parades cost nothing. You turn up, you walk, you go home. In Richterswil there is a price tag in front of the evening: ten francs, cash only, and wearing the badge is compulsory. That is not a souvenir stall. It is the ticket to the largest turnip lantern parade in the world.
📅 Start time, meeting point — and what the organiser actually published
Räbechilbi Richterswil
confirmedSaturday, 14 November 2026 · 1 day
- Start
- 18:00
- Organiser
- Arbeitsgruppe Räbechilbi, Verkehrs- und Verschönerungsverein Richterswil
Regarded as the world's largest turnip-lantern parade: around 40 floats, lasting about an hour.
- From 3 p.m. there are market stalls, open-air concerts and attractions in the old village centre.
- Come by S2 or S8 – the route runs right beside Richterswil station, and there is no parking.
- The festival badge at CHF 10.– or the plaque at CHF 15.– is compulsory – wearing it is required, sold for cash only.
Source: To the organiser's page · checked on 11 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Räbechilbi Richterswil | Sat 14 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.
- RichterswilRäbechilbi Richterswil
🔎 What sets this parade apart from every other one
The Guinness Book of Records listed the Räbechilbi in 2000 as the largest turnip lantern parade in the world. The Zurich transport authority still describes it that way, and around forty floats move through the old village centre for a good hour. That is the figure you read everywhere. The two figures you read almost nowhere change the evening far more.
The first is ten. In the entire ConvivaPlus survey, Richterswil is the only parade where taking part costs money: festival badge CHF 10.– or plaque CHF 15.–, and they are compulsory to wear, not optional to buy. They are sold for cash. For comparison: in Baden the organiser states explicitly that «taking part in the parade is free» — the seven francs there buy you a turnip to carve, not a place in the procession. Arrive in Richterswil with a card and no coins and you have a problem you simply cannot have in Horgen or Wallisellen.
The second is fifteen. The fair starts at 15:00, the parade at 18:00, and it ends at 21:00. Read «turnip lantern parade Richterswil», turn up at the station at 17:50, and you have missed three hours of market stalls, open-air concerts and attractions, arriving in a village that has been full for hours. In every other entry in this survey the parade is the event. Here it is the closing act.
Ten francs for a compulsory badge – what do you think?
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🎯 How not to end up in the dark at the wrong meeting point
Three things decide the Richterswil evening — and two of them exist at no other parade.
- 1Get cash before you set offFestival badge CHF 10.–, plaque CHF 15.–, cash only, wearing it compulsory. A cash machine in a packed village centre at 17:45 is not a plan. For a family of four that is 40 francs which arise nowhere else in this survey.
- 2Come in the afternoon, not in the eveningFrom 15:00 market stalls, open-air concerts and attractions fill the old village centre; the parade only sets off at 18:00 and lasts about an hour. Take the whole day and you pay the same badge for six hours instead of one.
- 3By S2 or S8 — there is no parkingThe organiser says it plainly: «Travel by public transport – no parking spaces are available.» The route runs right beside Richterswil station. That makes this perhaps the easiest arrival of the whole season – as long as you leave the car at home.
- 4Carving your own turnip: 31 OctoberThe turnip sale takes place on Saturday, 31 October 2026, from 9:00 to 16:00 – two weeks before the parade. If you want to carry your own turnip, pencil in that Saturday; one hollowed out in early November will not survive until the 14th.
🗺️ Where this parade sits in the season
Richterswil closes the season: the ConvivaPlus survey lists 22 parades, 16 of them with a verified date, and this is the last of those — the season ends on 14 November 2026, having begun on 30 October 2026. In the canton of Zurich, 12 parades are recorded.
On 14 November 2026 not a single other parade in the dataset sets off. The busiest evening, 6 November 2026 with 5 simultaneous parades, falls a week earlier. That is not chance but a rule: the organiser fixes the Räbechilbi on the second Saturday in November. Together with Albisrieden, Richterswil is one of only two entries in the survey where a rule and a verified date stand side by side. In the other six entries carrying a rule, that field holds a rule or a note — but no date for 2026.
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
Of the 22 recorded parades, exactly one: Richterswil, through its compulsory festival badge. All the others are free – occasionally you pay for a turnip to carve or for food vouchers, but never for walking in the procession.
Every verified turnip lantern parade →A turnip lantern parade is the procession itself, usually an hour. A «Chilbi» is a fair with stalls, music and attractions – in Richterswil from 15:00 to 21:00, with the parade as its high point at 18:00. The name therefore tells you to plan an afternoon, not just an evening.
According to the published rule, always on the second Saturday in November – so 13 November 2027 and 11 November 2028. That is our derivation from the organiser's rule, not a date confirmed by them; for the current year, 14 November 2026 is verified.
Every parade in the canton of Zurich →The ConvivaPlus verdict
If you want to see exactly one turnip lantern event this season, this is it — and we say so this bluntly with some reluctance, because it does an injustice to the small neighbourhood parades, which achieve something else entirely. But forty floats, a whole village centre and a parade the Guinness Book listed in 2000 as the world's largest of its kind are without competition in this survey. Add the simplest arrival in the whole vein: step off the train and you are in it.
Two caveats that appear on no poster. First, it costs: ten francs per person, in cash, compulsory. For a family that is an amount no other parade in this survey demands. Second, it is not an evening but a day — between 15:00 and 21:00 the parade lasts one hour. Plan only that hour and you pay the full price for the smallest part.
Freshness note: Date, start time, number of floats, fair hours and badge prices were re-read on 11 September 2026 at vvrs.ch and at the Zurich transport authority. The title «world's largest» comes from the Guinness Book of Records 2000 and is carried forward by the ZVV – there is no continuously maintained world ranking of turnip lantern parades.
Check the latest: ConvivaPlus Turnip Lantern Dataset 2026 – Richterswil →
- ◆The badge is the real story: what is remarkable is not the price but that it is the only one. 22recorded parades, twenty-one times no till — and once an obligation to wear. Anyone who wants to understand why a custom becomes a festival with a budget in one place and stays a parents' evening in twenty others will find the difference precisely here.
- ◆The rule outranks the date: Richterswil is one of only two entries in this survey where a rule and a verified date stand side by side — «the second Saturday in November» plus the confirmed 14 November 2026. In practice that means you can put this evening in your calendar as a repeat and never search for it again. Six further entries carry only the rule, and that is a different thing from a date.
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Richterswil is the only one of the 22 recorded turnip lantern parades where taking part costs money: festival badge CHF 10.– or plaque CHF 15.–, compulsory and cash only.
Discussion
3 voices from the community
S Abzeichen isch kei Souvenir, das isch de Iitritt. Mir händ das s erscht Mal au nöd gwüsst und sind denn am Bancomat gstande, wo scho alli understi Gasse voll gsi isch.
Als Einheimische chömed mir am Namittag. Um 18i staht mer eh nüme vore. D Chilbi isch ab drü und de Umzug isch de Schlusspunkt, nöd de Aafang.
Mit em Auto bruchsch gar nöd z probiere. Mir nämed d S8, stiiged us und sind grad mitten im Umzug. Das isch ehrlich gseit de eifachst Aalass vo de ganze Saison für d Aareis.
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🏮 Turnip lantern parade · 11 September 2026