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An elderly woman and a girl in traditional dress work together on a historical farming activity, surrounded by an atmosphere of cultural heritage and community learning.

Brächete Zäziwil

The Brächete Zäziwil – once a year, the traditional craft of turning flax into linen takes centre stage. And there’s also a market with local specialties, music and dance.
25September2024
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At the Brächete Zäzwil, the flax is rippled, retted, broken, hackled, spun and woven just like in the olden days and through this traditional craftsmanship, flax plants are transformed into delicate linen fabrics. The historical festival is on Bern’s List of Living Traditions in Switzerland, and, every year on the last Wednesday of September, brings thousands of visitors to the Emmental. At the market stalls, breakers in traditional dresses demonstrate the time-consuming and labour-intensive manual work that characterized the local textile production during Gotthelf’s days. You can also admire historical tools at the Brächete.

Das Bild zeigt eine Frau in traditioneller Kleidung, die konzentriert Getreide siebt. Die rustikale Umgebung und die alte Technik vermitteln ein Gefühl von Tradition und handwerklicher Sorgfalt in einer ländlichen, historischen Atmosphäre.
Handwerk Brächete Zäziwil 2017
© Brächete Zäziwil

The annual fair also brings other ancient crafts to life, such as making ropes, threshing grain, and manufacturing shingles. In the past, the villagers used to meet up to practice their respective crafts, and over time, their gatherings transformed into today’s folk festival. You can find the complete programme for this year’s Brächete on the website of the municipality of Zäzwil.

By the way, there’s another tradition that has made it into the year 2024: the recipe for the traditional schnapps «Brächete-Brönnts» is still a well-kept secret.