Candle dipping in Zurich: it has not been Bürkliplatz for years
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.
📅 Run, opening hours and what the organiser actually published
Zürcher Kerzenziehen am Hechtplatz
confirmedSaturday, 14 November 2026 – Monday, 21 December 2026 · 38 days
- Opening hours
- Sunday to Thursday 10:00 to 20:00 · Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 21:00
- Meeting point
- Hechtplatz, 8001 Zürich
- Food and drink
- Wer eine dicke Kerze zieht, bleibt lange: der Veranstalter rechnet mit Stunden, nicht mit Minuten.
- Organiser
- Stiftung Zürcher Kerzenziehen / Zürcher Eingliederung
The oldest public candle-dipping event in Switzerland: first held in 1969, in 2026 for the 58th time — and it is no longer where a whole generation looks for it. The organiser writes that it «takes place on Hechtplatz again»; Bürkliplatz, with which the event was equated for decades, is no longer the venue.
- 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.
Source: To the organiser's page · checked on 8 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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zürcher Kerzenziehen am Hechtplatz | Sat 14 Nov – Mon 21 Dec38 days | Sunday to Thursday 10:00 to 20:00 · Friday and Saturday 10:00 to 21:00 | confirmed |
Calculated from the ConvivaPlus dataset — every row with its own source above.
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.
🔎 What sets this candle-dipping session apart
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.
The second difference is structural and explains this event's special role in Zurich: it runs daily, for 38 days, until 8pm or 9pm. The 15 recorded offerings in the city of Zurich are otherwise almost all neighbourhood sessions run by community centres and parishes: volunteers, isolated afternoons, closure days in the middle of the run. Here there is an organisation behind it. Anyone without a free Wednesday afternoon will find practically only one evening in this city where the wax is reliably warm.
And the third difference only becomes apparent when you arrive too late: the mornings do not belong to the public. Between 8am and 10am, school classes and groups dip – that is, before opening. The organiser writes that these slots are «largely booked out». Anyone planning a class visit who enquires in October is usually too late for the morning.
Where would you have looked for the Zürcher Kerzenziehen?
One click – anonymous, no sign-up required.
🎯 How to plan the visit without arriving at a cold wax pot
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. Four things decide the evening.
- 1Fix the address before you leaveHechtplatz, 8001 Zurich. Not Bürkliplatz. Feed «Kerzenziehen Bürkliplatz» into a satnav and you arrive at the lakefront – where there is no wax pot in November.
- 2A 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.
- 3Classes and groups: the morning slot is the real resourceMonday to Friday between 8am and 10am, groups dip in an empty tent, by reservation. Without a slot you can still come from 10am – but among everyone else. With twenty children that is a different outing entirely.
- 4The 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.
🗺️ Where this session sits in the season
In the city of Zurich our dataset records 15 offerings, and 24 across the whole canton – more than any other canton in the survey. 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 29 November 2026: on that single day 17 of the 25 documented sessions are running at the same time. The whole season spans 2 November 2026 to 3 January 2027.
Candle dipping nearby
Frequently asked questions about this session
Answers from the verified dataset – no date carried over from last year.
People also ask
Related questions from our magazine
The dataset records 15 offerings in the city of Zurich – mostly community centres and parishes, each with its own hours, age limits and prices.
Every candle-dipping spot in the city of Zurich →The one on the Uetliberg at the UTO KULM: it starts in November and only ends on 3 January 2027 – the only recorded session to cross into the new year.
Candle dipping Uetliberg →You pay by weight. Published prices in our survey range from CHF 3.– to CHF 5.50 per 100 grams; coloured paraffin is cheaper than beeswax almost everywhere.
To the ConvivaPlus-Kerzenzieh-Kalender →The ConvivaPlus verdict
For anyone without a free afternoon this is the strongest session in the canton: 38 days straight, open every day, late into the evening. None of the 24 recorded Zurich offerings can be planned as spontaneously – the neighbourhood sessions have closure days in the middle of their run, this one does not.
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.
Freshness note: 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 the organiser for the ConvivaPlus survey — this ConvivaPlus verdikt rests on nothing else.
Check the latest: ConvivaPlus candle-dipping dataset 2026 – Zürich · 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.
- ◆The morning belongs to school classes: from 8am to 10am they dip before opening. Those slots are, according to the organiser, largely gone before the season even starts.
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The 1969 Zürcher Kerzenziehen was Switzerland's first public candle-dipping session – and its net proceeds provided the start-up capital for the Zürcher Eingliederung. The event financed an institution before that institution took it over.
Discussion
5 voices from the community
Ich zieh sit de Siebzigerjahr Cherze a dem Aalass, zerscht als Chind, denn mit de eigene Chind. Und ich sege immer no «Bürkliplatz», obwohls scho lang nüme stimmt. Das isch kei Dummheit, das isch eifach dreissig Jahr Gwohnheit.
Genau deshalb steht es bei uns im ersten Satz und nicht in einer Fussnote, Ruth. Der Name ist zum Gattungsbegriff geworden – die Stiftung selbst schreibt auf ihrer Startseite, dass der Anlass am Hechtplatz stattfindet.
Tipp für alle mit Schulklassen: Die Morgenzeiten sind wirklich schon fast weg, wenn man im Oktober anruft. Wir haben es zweimal zu spät versucht und sind dann mit 22 Kindern um zehn Uhr ins volle Zelt – das war anstrengend für alle.
Was mich positiv überrascht hat: Das Zelt ist auch am Sonntagabend um sieben noch offen. Ich hatte nach der Arbeit im November tatsächlich Zeit – bei den meisten Quartier-Angeboten wäre um halb sechs Schluss gewesen.
Das ist der strukturelle Unterschied zu den Gemeinschaftszentren: Hier wird durchgehend bis 20 Uhr gezogen, freitags und samstags sogar bis 21 Uhr. Die Quartier-Angebote arbeiten mit Freiwilligen und schliessen darum früher.
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🕯️ Candle dipping · 8 September 2026