Candle dipping in Zurich: it has not been Bürkliplatz for years
✓ Checked at the source · as of 8 September 2026
It is the oldest public candle-dipping session in Switzerland and, for many people in Zurich, simply «the one on Bürkliplatz». Except it is not there any more. Follow the memory and you end up on an empty square by the Bahnhofstrasse – with the tent a ten-minute walk away.
📅 Dates 2026 — when and where
Zürcher Kerzenziehen am Hechtplatz
✓Saturday, 14 November 2026 – Monday, 21 December 2026 · 38 days
- Organiser
- Stiftung Zürcher Kerzenziehen / Zürcher Eingliederung
Source: zuercherkerzenziehen.ch · checked on 8 September 2026
🕐 Opening hours 2026
Usually open until 20:00 – most events in the calendar close earlier.
Sunday to Thursday 10:00 to 20:00 · Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 21:00
Each bar is a documented run. Dark = this session, pale = the nearest ones. Read a single date and you miss that the neighbouring village has already packed up when the wax here is only just warming.
🗓️ Open today?
12 days fall on a Saturday or Sunday – enter your day and the check tells you what is open.
📅 Visit-Day Check by ConvivaPlus
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.
Calculated from the ConvivaPlus dataset — every date with its own source above.
🚋 Transport & access with stop
140 metres as the crow flies from the stop, about 2 minutes on foot.
- Meeting point
- Hechtplatz, 8001 Zürich
- Nearest stop
- Zürich, Bellevue (BUS · TRAM) — 140 m as the crow flies
Coordinates © swisstopo · Stops: opentransportdata.swiss (FOT)
📋 Good to know before you go
- Food and drink
- Wer eine dicke Kerze zieht, bleibt lange: der Veranstalter rechnet mit Stunden, nicht mit Minuten.
- School classes and groups can book Monday to Friday between 8:00 and 10:00, that is before the public opening. The organiser says it is «largely booked out» as a result.
- Groups without a reserved morning slot can come from 10:00 — but then share the marquee with other visitors.
- The number 044 211 26 00 is only in service from 14 November; before that, call 044 388 49 03.
- The net proceeds historically went to social institutions; the seed capital of Zürcher Eingliederung came from this event.
✨ Highlights on site
What sets this candle-dipping session apart is not in its run dates.
Bürkliplatz is where the first public candle-dipping session in Switzerland was held in 1969. The name stayed, the event moved. The foundation says so on its own homepage – but someone who has said «Bürkliplatz» for thirty years does not read a homepage, they simply drive there. This is not a small detour: these are two different squares in two different corners of the city centre, and on one of them there is nothing at all in November.
And another difference only becomes apparent when you arrive too late: the mornings do not belong to the public.
Where would you have looked for the Zürcher Kerzenziehen?
One click – anonymous, no sign-up required.
🎯 Practical tips for your visit
Hechtplatz sits near Bellevue, less than a ten-minute walk from Bürkliplatz – but they are the wrong ten minutes when you are loaded with children and winter clothes.
- 1A thick candle is not a quick stopThe organiser counts in hours, not minutes: the thicker the candle, the longer the dipping. Arrive at 7.30pm intending to make a fine fat one and you leave with a thin one.
- 2The phone number changes with the seasonThe tent's line only goes live on the first dipping day. Anyone calling before that – which is exactly when you are planning – needs the foundation's second number. Enquiries fail on this detail every year.
🗺️ Nearby sessions
The city of Zurich has 15 offerings, and 24 across the whole canton – more than any other canton in the calendar. Hechtplatz is neither the earliest nor the longest: the Kerzenwerk in the Binz opens ten days earlier, and on the Uetliberg they are still dipping when everything here has been packed away. It is the most reliable.
Nationally, the densest day of the season is 2 December 2026: on that single day 28 of the 52 documented sessions are running at the same time. The whole season spans 23 September 2026 to 3 January 2027.
More candle dipping in the canton of Zurich
All of the canton of Zurich →❓ FAQ — answered
Answers from the verified dataset – no date carried over from last year.
People also ask
Related questions from our magazine
The city of Zurich has 15 offerings – mostly community centres and parishes, each with its own hours, age limits and prices.
The one on the Uetliberg at the UTO KULM: it starts in November and only ends on 3 January 2027 – the only session in the calendar to cross into the new year.
You pay by weight. Published prices in our calendar range from CHF 3.– to CHF 6.– per 100 grams; coloured paraffin is cheaper than beeswax almost everywhere.
The ConvivaPlus verdict
What it is not: intimate. A tent on a city-centre square in Advent is busy, loud and warm. Anyone who wants to dip quietly with small children is better served at a community centre, where thirty rather than three hundred people fill the room. This session wins on reliability and opening hours, not on calm.
When we last checked: Opening hours and group quotas can change at short notice. We read them on 8 September 2026 directly from the foundation – check again on the day before travelling. The basis is the ConvivaPlus-Kerzenzieh-Kalender 2026: every entry was read individually at its source for the ConvivaPlus calendar — this ConvivaPlus verdikt rests on nothing else.
Check the latest: ConvivaPlus candle-dipping dataset 2026 – Zurich · Hechtplatz →
- ◆The place name is the trap: «Bürkliplatz» has become the generic name for this event. Today it describes a square where nothing happens in November.
- ◆The number that does not answer in October: the tent's line only opens on the first dipping day. If you call during the planning phase, you need the foundation's second number.
🗓️ At the same time in the canton of Zurich
- 🏊 Winter swimming in the canton of Zurichfrom Fri 9 Oct
- 🚂 Festive rides in the canton of ZurichSun 1 Nov – Sun 28 Feb
- ✨ Light trails in the canton of Zurichfrom Thu 5 Nov
- 🏮 Turnip lanterns in the canton of ZurichThu 5 Nov · Fri 6 Nov · Sat 7 Nov · Sat 14 Nov
- 🛍️ Sunday shopping in the canton of ZurichSun 15 Nov – Sun 27 Dec
- ✨ Christmas markets in the canton of ZurichWed 18 Nov – Thu 24 Dec
- 🎅 St Nicholas in the canton of ZurichSun 29 Nov
How we check
According to the ConvivaPlus calendar, 14 of the 52 confirmed events this season start earlier than this one and 35 later.
Every date comes from the organiser's, the municipality's or the canton's own site — never from an aggregator, never copied over from last year. Next to each source is the date we last read it.
Something missing or changed? A note below is enough; we check it at the source.
ConvivaPlus Editor · Family & Day Trips
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All information without guarantee. Found an error? → support@conviva-plus.ch
The organiser writes that it «takes place on Hechtplatz again»; Bürkliplatz, with which the event was equated for decades, is no longer the venue.
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🕯️ Candle dipping · 8 September 2026