What next?

America is, with some justification, considered one of the most consumeristic countries in the world. However, in some ways Switzerland is just as bad. When I was here back in October, I saw that many shops had already started displaying their Christmas wares. Then, Fasnacht cakes took the place of Christmas lebkuchen and läckerli cookies, and those in turn were nudged aside by enormous chocolate Easter bunnies and elaborately decorated eggs. Whenever I'm here, there's been something special for sale in the stores.

Now that Easter is over, I've been wondering what they'll come up with next. As far as I'm aware, there are no religious, national, cantonal, or city holidays coming up. So what excuse will Coop and Migros use to get people to indulge?

Well, yesterday I went into Migros for the first time since Easter, and the answer seems to be: BEETLES.


Yes, you read that right. Beetles, and I don't mean the car, either. For some reason, an artful arrangement of fist-sized, creepy-crawly-shaped chocolates was perched in the middle of the grocery store, between a refrigerator case filled with yogurt, and a display stand of melons.

After a bit of staring and obligatory photo-taking, I got down to the serious business of wondering. Who would want to eat a bug, chocolate or not? (On second thought, I can imagine a lot of grade-school boys thinking this would be really cool.) And were there actually beetles inside? (The American Museum of Natural History used to sell similar stuff for its Insects exhibit, and some of those candies involved real bugs embedded in lollipops; they were meant to ressemble flies in amber.) And why, of all things, beetles?

Swissy Pie clarified things somewhat when he got home. Those were Maikäfer, or May bugs, which were once a terrible pest in Europe. Both the larvae and the adults are voracious eaters, so infestations could wipe out the entire year's crop. Nevertheless, since they appear in late April or early May, they are a sign that spring has arrived, so apparently as long as they don't behave too terribly, they are welcomed.

That still didn't quite explain why people ate chocolate Maikäfer. After all, spinach, asparagus, lamb, strawberries, raspberries, and all sorts of seasonal stuff was appearing on the market at the same time. Why bugs? Was it some sort of "we'll eat them before they can eat us" mentality, I asked? Swissy Pie only shrugged.

Possibly, as a little bit of research showed, but more likely it's an evolution. Back in the dark ages before DDT and other lovely pesticides were invented, farmers attempted to keep the Maikäfer population under control by catching and killing the adult beetles. These efforts were only marginally successful, so presumably crops were often destroyed. People might then have turned to the beetles for food. There are recipes for Maikäfersuppe, which evidently tastes somewhat like crab soup. Even as late as the 1920s, some students ate sugar-covered Maikäfer. Just as the Karneval Nubbel has taken the place of a real human sacrifice, chocolate Maikäfer may have taken the place of the real thing.

Which is probably for the best, as far as the Swiss retailers are concerned. But what will they put in the aisles after the May bugs are gone? June bugs?