I can't remember when I experienced the Ubersitz for the first time in Meiringen the village where my dad was born. I just remember that when my family are vacationing in Switzerland we would always go to Meiringen and stay at my grandma's house. My little brother and I used to lay on our beds at night listening to the Treichlen. The sound of giant Swiss cowbells and the rum-tum-tum of the snare drums played by a group of people, young and old would lullaby us to sleep...
Well, not really...when they were at a distance it didn't bother us. But, it could be quite shocking if you are not used to it. These people shake their cowbells and beat on their drums the whole night long till dawn. The Treichlen starts from the December 25 to December 30. They do take breaks and stop playing once in a while, surely to have a drink and to warm themselves up. But imagine a group of people gathering in front of your house in the middle of the night, after the break (and several glasses of alcoholic beverages), with about 20 cowbells in all sizes (from big to...OMG that's huge..!) and a dozen or so snare drums. When you're asleep, and these people starts playing under your window...I kid you not...you'll find yourself awake and airborne at least a foot off your bed!
I believe it was my little brother, Lucky (pronounced Loo-kie, yes...like cookie with an "l" instead of a "c"), who started to beat boxing one night following the beat of the Treichlen's drums. I in turn followed him, thus it was somehow became a tradition that whenever the Treichlen was approaching our grandma's house we would start beat boxing in our beds until they were a distance away. Sometimes we would continue even when the Treichlen was nowhere to be heard and our mom or dad would burst into our room and told us to go to sleep because we were quite loud and it was late (yup, we were stupid like that...).
Ok, enough of me reminiscing about my childhood and young adulthood. Whenever I have the chance to go to see the Ubersitz there is only one thing in my mind...the family's tradition...cheese fondue! On December 30th any family member who can make it will come to have some cheese fondue at my late grandma's house while waiting for the big event where Treichlen groups from surrounding villages gather in Meiringen to start the Ubersitz.
Cheese fondue, a pot of gooey goodness...Cheese fondue...simply put is a pot of gooey goodness that will keep your body warm in a cold winter night. Now, when you're eating a substantial amount of melted cheese it is strongly advised that you drink either an alcoholic beverage or a hot beverage which will help the cheese to stay digest in your stomach. I know someone who did not heed this advice and drank cold coke instead. After a while the person started to feel sick and what happened after was not pretty to look at...let's just say that it's like watching the Excorcist's pea soup scene but in real life. All that was missing was the 360 degrees head twisting scene.
Keep 'em coming...Eating cheese fondue could be an interesting experience. As you know cheese fondue is eaten by piercing a piece of bread with a long thin fork, dunking it in the cheese before finally eating it. Well, once in a while someone would lose the piece of bread in the pot...that's when the fun begins. There are many variations of the etiquette attached to enjoying this meal. From buying a bottle of wine to diving into fresh snow wearing only your underwear, your imagination is the limit. In my family if you lose your bread in the pot you have to kiss the person to your left. So, if you ever have the chance to enjoy a pot of cheese fondue, ladies, make sure you are sitting on the right hand side of a handsome gentleman and vice-versa for the gents. Otherwise you'll end up experiencing the same fate that befell upon yours truly as you can see on the picture below.
Note to self...sit next to a beautiful girl next time...As the meal comes to an end and as the night stretched further everybody started to get ready to brave the cold outside to see the main event of chasing away the bad spirits with drums and giant cowbells. One thing that I always regret during this festivity is the lack of variety in the street food. Grilled sausage, hot dogs and more bread topped with melted cheese are the only street food available. Aisha is always looking forward to having some Glühwein (Mulled wine), but I’m always looking forward to any new street food and from the looks of things I won't hold my breath. The last time I went to see the Ubersitz, Dalibor, the husband of my cousin proposed to me that we opened a food stand with different types of street food just to add to the variety which I thought was a great idea. I'll have to see how to make that possible, maybe for the Ubersitz next year.
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