Away From Home For the Holidays Part 1: The Escalade
2007 marked the first year of my life away from my family at Christmas. While it certainly wasn’t the same as being home, I am grateful to have friends in Geneva I was able to spend my time with. And like last year, the city’s artistic Festival Arbres et Lumières (Festival of Trees and Lights) was on, as was the Escalade race and parade.
As I wrote last year (sorry, but I’m too lazy at the moment to relink the photos), the Escalade is a series of celebrations themed around a failed attempt by Savoy troups to seize Geneva back in the day. This year, in addition to the normal Escalade races, there was also an 18 km option called the “Cours du Duc” which started in France and traced the route of the would-be conquerers to the Old Town of Geneva. I ran in that race which was quite fun. There was even a betting pool (with proceeds going to charity) within the Hash running group and I ended up coming in third place in an hour and eighteen minutes. I also managed to beat my friend Lammert from Shema by half a minute or so…
Despite intermittent rain throughout the day, the Genevois turned out in force for the costumed “Marmite” race/parade. Here are a few pics from that:
Something I didn’t really describe last year is the tradition of breaking the marmite, which symbolizes the old lady dumping her hot vegetable soup on the unsuspecting Savoy troups. Every year in early december chocolate pots begin to appear in the stores. Families traditionally break these on the evening of the Escalade after chanting an edict renouncing oppressors (or something of that nature). The oldest and youngest of the household basically crack the thing open and then share the chocolate and marzipan vegetables contained within.
At a poker night with some friends at Darryl’s we executed the tradition with Lammert and Michael demolishing the pot
And of course, the whole thing culminates with the Fête de Escalade where people in old-timey costumes parade through Geneva and read a declaration in several key locales before lighting a big bonfire in front of the Cathedral. Here are a few photos from that evening:
And now for something completely different:
Unrelated to the Escalade but still worthy of note was the Christmas display in Geneva’s train station featuring the worst/scariest Santa mannequin ever. This one’s for you dad:
Nothing says Christmas quite like a slimming velour jumpsuit and cape ensemble…
As I wrote last year (sorry, but I’m too lazy at the moment to relink the photos), the Escalade is a series of celebrations themed around a failed attempt by Savoy troups to seize Geneva back in the day. This year, in addition to the normal Escalade races, there was also an 18 km option called the “Cours du Duc” which started in France and traced the route of the would-be conquerers to the Old Town of Geneva. I ran in that race which was quite fun. There was even a betting pool (with proceeds going to charity) within the Hash running group and I ended up coming in third place in an hour and eighteen minutes. I also managed to beat my friend Lammert from Shema by half a minute or so…
Despite intermittent rain throughout the day, the Genevois turned out in force for the costumed “Marmite” race/parade. Here are a few pics from that:
Something I didn’t really describe last year is the tradition of breaking the marmite, which symbolizes the old lady dumping her hot vegetable soup on the unsuspecting Savoy troups. Every year in early december chocolate pots begin to appear in the stores. Families traditionally break these on the evening of the Escalade after chanting an edict renouncing oppressors (or something of that nature). The oldest and youngest of the household basically crack the thing open and then share the chocolate and marzipan vegetables contained within.
At a poker night with some friends at Darryl’s we executed the tradition with Lammert and Michael demolishing the pot
And of course, the whole thing culminates with the Fête de Escalade where people in old-timey costumes parade through Geneva and read a declaration in several key locales before lighting a big bonfire in front of the Cathedral. Here are a few photos from that evening:
And now for something completely different:
Unrelated to the Escalade but still worthy of note was the Christmas display in Geneva’s train station featuring the worst/scariest Santa mannequin ever. This one’s for you dad:
Nothing says Christmas quite like a slimming velour jumpsuit and cape ensemble…
posted by Aaron at 4:56 PM
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