Dancing pines

In a quiet valley of the Swiss mountains, anarchic creatures, half giants, half animals, roam about. A cozy village transforms into a busy Alpine Wall Street in the summertime. And wildly blazing torches on people's shoulders plunge a historic old town into a sea of flames every year.

Quaint, fervent and close to nature - the Swiss cultivate their very own local customs and traditions with a great deal of passion. There are rituals that wistfully bid farewell to summer or exuberantly drive away the long winter, that celebrate religious occasions or cultivate secular events; sometimes similar to those of a hundred years ago, sometimes adapted to the present.

Together, the photographer and authors traveled through Switzerland tracing some of its most beautiful and wildest traditions, exploring what they are really about and what they mean to people. In this volume, the editors present their personal highlights of the customs of Swiss urban and rural life.