Weddingbee Blog

Back in April I was getting ready to head to my first Polterabig (oder Polterabend auf Hochdeutsch) for a friend of Mr. Funnel Cake, while he went to the groom’s Polterabend the same night.

What is a Swiss Polterabend? Well, it is certainly not the traditional German Polterabend of breaking dishes:

Image via Listrocket

Nobody does that in Switzerland (I think). No, a Swiss Polterabend or Polterabig is more like a traditional bachelorette/hen party. Only more hazing involved. Typically you see brides and grooms running around the city trying to collect money, usually while dressed embarrassingly or doing the uncomfortable activities that I mentioned earlier.

I had received a flurry of texts and emails all auf Schwiizerdütsch, or Züridütsch more specifically, which I really struggle to understand compared to normal German:

Personal image

I don’t know how many of you out there took German in school, but for a moderate learner, I’m stumped when the Swiss decide to write down their many dialects! I understood that I was invited to the Polterabig, where and when to meet them, that there was going to be a surprise, and that I needed to write stories about the bride and me and email them…but honestly it was all a little blurry because I don’t know half those words. My brain was just trying to smoosh the words together to make sense of them.

After consulting with Mr. Funnel Cake, he told me I also needed to buy a gift costing between five and ten francs, which is really not much in Switzerland. So on a Friday evening I found myself hurriedly picking out a cheap gift in the store, not knowing for whom or what exactly to get. I ended up spending 15 CHF. Shhh, don’t tell anybody I broke the rules!

I was a little nervous about spending the whole evening with Mr. Funnel Cake’s women friends sans Mr. FC, but I was sure I would have fun. I’m not sure I’ll get my own Polterabend, so this might be as close as I get to that.

Do you have any new traditions or activities that you’ve been introduced to through your partner? How do you feel about doing things that are “new” to you?