Have you heard about the cow festivals in the Alps? I hadn’t either… until I went to one. I had so much fun and then I went to another!
Every year at the end of Summer, the sound of bells can be heard ringing through little Alpine villages of Germany, Switzerland and Austria. What does this mean? The cow herds are descending from their Summer pastures to their Winter pastures.
The entire village joins in on the celebration and is decorated – the people wear their traditional folk dress and the cows are dressed up too! They wear special headdresses!
The farmers lead their herd down the hill. It’s really funny watching the cows… they follow one after the other in a line, most of the time.
Except when they see green grass, then the line gets broken and they try to make their way to the grassy fields. The farmers then use their sticks and wack them back into line! 
In addition to costumes, there is traditional Schuhplatteln dancing, Alphorn blowing and music.
The locals wear their traditional costumes. Love the little girl being pulled in the goat cart. Sorry I blurred their faces as I don’t know European law about faces in pictures.
Speaking of goats, there are often little goat herds in the festival too! They don’t get to wear crowns like the cows, but they all have little bells on them. This little girl below was funny – she looked behind at her goat the entire time and kept her tight on her leash… perhaps she’s been known to eat through a rope or two?
This ceremonial cattle drive is called the Almabtrieb, however in the Allgäu it is called the Viehscheid.
The cows wear traditional “Fuikl”, which are special crowns worn only for the Almabtrieb.
The farmers create the crowns them selves, often from the fir and spruce branches and wildflowers.
The cow with the biggest and prettiest crown of each herd is the Kranzrind, “The Crown Cow” and has a special job as it is the lead cow and leads the rest of the cows home. Below, in between the two people you can see the “Crown Cow” – it has the biggest bell and the biggest crown.
The loud bells around the necks of the cows are designed to protect them from “hostile demons” as they descend into the valley.
There are two types of cowbells – “Glocken” which are cast and “Schellen” which are from plate metal.
The locals really do party ’til the cows come home. Hmm… wonder if this is where the saying originates?
The festival pictures above are from two separate festivals in different years – one was in Switzerland and one was in Austria.
Source for Article information is from Bavaria.by.
Here are some websites that list the dates they occur:
Viehscheid and Almabtrieb in Bavaria
Almabtriebe and Viehscheidtermine in Bavaria, Allgäu, Tirol, Austria, and Switzerland
I do hope you enjoyed reading about the cow festivals in the Alps! We liked going to these over going to the Oktoberfest. I know many people travel to Germany for the Oktoberfest… perhaps you’ll find time to make it to one of these festivals!
Finally we were able to clear some time in our schedule for our trip. Laduree opened two locations in Southern California – one at the Grove and one in Beverly Hills. We went to the one at the Grove.
