Lichterschwimmen

Last night at six pm, just a couple of blocks down the river Limmat, was the Lichterschwimmen. This is the event where hundreds of "swimming lights" are made by local schoolchildren and released into the river. (While there were some actual boat looking things, most of the candles we saw were empty yogurt containers turned upside down with a hole at the top to let out the heat from the candle, all attached to a square piece of styrafoam - which seemed to float quite well...by the way) The city offers free hot punch and cookies in the local square, the Weinplatz, and many people were out to see this event. This is all in part of the Christmas celebration effort of Zurich.
While there were parts of the evening that were charming, I have to admit that is was quite anti-climatic. We had heard about this festival months ago, and it just didn't quite live up to my mind's eye. I'm not sure if other years are better, but it seemed as though many of the "boats" were getting stuck out of the current.
I think next year we'll watch from out apartment...