A Humorous Guide to Switzerland

Easter is just around the corner. Whether you plan to go to church on Easter Sunday or plan to just hide a few Easter Eggs, it is high time to freshen up on your Swiss German Easter skills.  You can consult my (non conclusive) list of Swiss German Easter terms and expressions for a start. Swiss German Words for the Easter season Bibeli (chick) Chrüzigung (crucifiction) Ei (egg) Eili (small egg) Eier färbe (to color eggs, e.g. by cooking them in dye or drawing on them) Eiertätsch (egg bump, i.e. an Easter game involving eggs) Eier sueche (to look for the eggs) Oschtere (Easter) Oschtereili (Easter egg) Oschterhaas (Easter bunny) Oschterhäsli (little Easter bunny) Oschtermäntig (Easter Monday, a national holiday) Oschternäschtli (Easter nest, i.e. the little basket you put the eggs and bunnies in) Oschtersunngi (Easter Sunday) Karfriitig (Good Friday) Marzipaneili (marzipan eggs) Schoggihaas ( chocolate bunny) Uferstehig (ressurection) Zuckereili (sugar e...

Easter will be here very soon. There is no way you can miss it. Shops and supermarkets are full of Easter related goodies and decorations in the shape of eggs and bunnies. I like chocolate and I love marzipan but sometimes Easter can be a bit too sweet . As it is, many chocolate bunnies and caramel eggs end up in the disposal bin rather than in a hungry mouth due to the over-abundance of Easter sweets. Instead of wasting precious Swiss Francs on mediocre chocolate (the one exception in my humble opinion being the Lindt Goldhase ) I decided to create my own Easter bunny. For this purpose I adapted  the recipe for a traditional Swiss Christmas treat, the Grittibänz . It's a human shaped sweet bread very similar to the braided Zopf bread  but a bit sweeter and of course smaller. However, instead of baking a Santa Claus shaped bread roll, I decided to try my hand on baking a bunny shaped bread roll . You may call the result Zopfhäsli  (which basically means  Zopf i...