How one Swiss village celebrates the autumn return of its mountain herds
In the Swiss village of Seewis im Prättigau, an ancient Alpine tradition marks the end of summer with parades of flower-crowned cows, bands on horse-drawn carts and a beard contest judged in a school gym
We hear them before we see them, the hollow clang of bells ringing out over the hills above the village.
As the sound draws nearer, a buzz runs through the crowd. Onlookers spread out along the edge of the steep, winding road, the main thoroughfare in the Swiss Alpine village of Seewis im Prättigau, to claim a vantage point.
When they turn a sharp corner and emerge from behind a wooden-shuttered house, we catch our first glimpse of the glossy, mushroom-coloured herd, which is being led down the narrow road by a cow crowned with green pine cuttings, a bright yellow dahlia and a cluster of edelweiss. The fur-lined leather strap of the huge bell around her neck is stitched with bright flowers.
Mountain blooms also adorn the chest of her cowherd, a young woman in a bright blue embroidered shirt, a corsage of pretty flowers pinned to her breast. Her hair is braided and captured in a loose bun. As with the other two cowherds, young men in matching blue embroidered shirts, she holds a rough-hewn crook with which to gently guide her bovine charges.
Flocks of sheep festooned in small brass bells and brown goats in red neckerchiefs tinkle past. A band provides harmony above the livestock percussion: three white-haired musicians playing a concertina, a flute and a double bass all crammed, along with the coachman, into an open-topped carriage pulled by two horses.