Between 6 pm and midnight on the Sunday following Ash Wednesday, groups of singers walk through the centre of Zug dedicating their music personally to engaged couples and newly weds. As a reward they receive a basket of doughnuts (“Chrööpfe” in the local dialect) and wine, lowered by rope from the windows of the lovers' houses. The gift is presented when the singers perform the Chrööpflimee song, which always comes right at the end of their repertoire. The custom became a major event in the town’s calendar as early as the nineteenth century. It underwent significant changes in the second half of the twentieth century, when new groups assumed responsibility for keeping the custom alive.
The “Candle Light Singers” performing in the old town, 2010 © Christof Borner-Keller/Neue Zuger Zeitung
The “Fire and Flame” group singing up to the lovers and their guests standing on the balcony of the Hotel Ochsen, 2010 © Ernst Moos, Zug
The choir of a folk music group singing and receiving the basket of doughnuts on Kolinplatz square, 2010 © Ernst Moos, Zug
Sheet music for the Chrööpflimee song © Ernst Moos, Zug
Members of the 5th Brigade of Zug‘s voluntary fire service singing at Chrööpfelimee in 1938 © Ernst Moos, Zug
A Chrööpfelimee singing group from 1946 © DNS-Transport, Zug
A Chrööpfelimee singing group from ca 1960 © DNS-Transport, Zug
Singing construction workers, 2007 © Christof Borner-Keller/Neue Zuger Zeitung
The basket of reward: Doughnuts and wine, 2007 © Christof Borner-Keller/Neue Zuger Zeitung
The rhythm of love: A singing group in front of the Old Town Hall in 2007 © Christof Borner-Keller/Neue Zuger Zeitung
Detailed description
Chrööpfelimee (PDF, 427 kB, 04.06.2018)Ausführliche Beschreibung
Category
Canton
Connected traditions
Publications
Urspeter Schelbert: Feste und Feiern im Kanton Zug. In: Zuger Neujahrsblatt 1996, p. 22-30
Keywords
Winter
Contact
Zunft der Schneider, Tuchscherer und Gewerbsleute der Stadt Zug