The power of Zibelemärit

When one lives in Switzerland for 6 months it is almost compulsory to rent a car and go on a road trip around the country. Driving from Lugano to Gèneve –which is the longest distance-- shouldn’t take more than 5 hours. Furthermore, Swiss highways have really picturesque views, which makes the trip by car even lighter.
We had just 5 days to enjoy our road trip around the country, but we knew this wasn’t going to be the only one. That’s why we decided to visit half of the cities we were interested in. Since Switzerland is a country made up of different cultures and languages, the experience of changing language almost every time we changed city was amazing. In 5 days we had to switch from Italian, to German and to French, although almost everybody was able to talk to us in any of those languages. Our relationship with the natives also seemed to change during the car trips: warm with the Italian speakers, cordial with the French speakers and a bit colder with the German speakers.
Nevertheless, one random morning we woke up in Bern (German speaking part) and everything was different. It turned out that it was an insignificant day for us but a very important day for them. It was the fourth Monday of November, which meant: “Zibelemärit” (Onion Market). Everybody was in the streets of the city centre. There were no lessons at school nor University and workers finished their work day earlier than usual. It was crazy! People wore necklaces made of sweets or small coloured onions (for the ones who wanted to spend a bit more money). Children threw confetti and hit total strangers with toy hammers. There were also big tents where they sold food and drinks (we even found one which provided Sangría). It seemed that their cold character had stayed at home. And it was great.
For one day one could see that they are not always strict and straightforward people. Sometimes (even if it’s just once a year) they act almost like Latin people enjoying the party and letting themselves not think. Now, I would like to ask Switzerland to establish a Zibelemärit once per month.