The story
Chalandamarz Engadin in Engadin villages
Children across Graubuenden's Engadin valley villages parade in traditional costume each first of March for Chalandamarz, a Romansh-language custom marking winter's symbolic end. Cracking whips and ringing large cowbells strapped around their waists, they move house to house singing traditional songs in exchange for sweets or small money. Costumes and songs vary by village, from Zernez to Scuol, though the underlying structure stays consistent.
On the first of March each year, villages across the Engadin valley in Graubuenden mark the symbolic end of winter with Chalandamarz, a Romansh-language spring custom whose name comes from calendas, the Latin term for the first day of a month.