The event usually takes place in the large Sechseläutenplatz square in Zurich, attracting thousands of onlookers. The city authorities had previously announced the burning would be screened live on television without spectators on April 19. On Tuesday it was announced that canton Uri, in central Switzerland, would play host to the ceremony in the remote Schöllenen Gorge near to the spectacular Devil’s Bridge.
This is to allow the event to take place in compliance with pandemic lockdown measures that forbid crowds of people to gather together.
In 1890, a decorated doll (a forebearer of the Böögg) was burned in Zurich in an attempt to drive off a “Russian flu” epidemic.
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