"Cheese Sunday"

"Cheese Sunday" Review

Landeck is known for an ancient and awe-inspiring rite that takes place on "Cheese Sunday"—the Sunday following Ash Wednesday. At dawn the young men set out to climb to the top of the great rocky crags that overshadow and hem in the Altstadt (Old City) on three sides. As dusk falls, they light huge bonfires that can be seen for miles around and then set fire to great disks of pinewood dipped in tar, which they roll ablaze down to the valley below. The sight of scores of these fiery wheels bounding down the steep slopes toward town is a fearsome spectacle worthy of Ezekiel.