On the last Saturday of September, in the Swiss town of Charmey, the cows come down from the mountain decked out in flowers, greenery and bells hung from carved leather straps. This year it falls on 26 September. It looks like a folklore show for tourists - and it is in fact the end of the working season.

The descent takes around three hours, from the high pastures down to the village in the La Gruyere district, canton of Fribourg. Between six and twelve neighbouring herds arrive over the whole morning and afternoon. The armailli, the region's herdsmen, wear dark embroidered jackets with edelweiss, and the young women accompanying them wear light blouses, red aprons and mountain boots.

The festival was first organised on 6 October 1980 by the local merchants' guild. That is an important detail: it means the format is new and the substance is centuries old. In 2023 UNESCO inscribed the Alpine pastoral tradition on the intangible cultural heritage of humanity - not the event in Charmey itself, but the whole way of life behind it.

The numbers tell the rest. Around 1,350 alpine buildings survive in the Fribourg region, almost all above 1,000 metres. Some fifty huts produce "Gruyere d'alpage AOP" - a cheese made exclusively in the summer months, up there, without electricity in the sense we understand it. One wheel takes around 400 litres of milk, and maturing lasts from five to eighteen months.

The song sung at the descent, Ranz des vaches, is documented as far back as 1545. It combines calls to the cows with improvised verses. Legend has it that Swiss mercenaries were punished by death for singing it - homesickness caused desertions from the army. A song that became a security risk.

The food is part of the work, not decoration. "Creme double de Gruyere", a thick cream at around fifty percent fat, is served in little wooden dishes with a carved spoon. There are also meringues with that cream, and "moitie-moitie" fondue of gruyere and vacherin fribourgeois.

Practicalities: the entry point is Geneva airport, then a train to Broc-Village and bus 260 to Charmey. Arrive before nine in the morning and by public transport - the herds close the roads. Staying overnight lets you see the whole day.

And one question that asks itself. Switzerland has built a national holiday out of the fact that the cows are coming home. The Balkans have an identical pastoral tradition, the same mountains, the same cheese made up on the high pastures - and almost no event anybody would travel from abroad to see on purpose.