Saturday, August 1, 2009

Happy Swiss National Day!


Happy Swiss National Day you all! For those not from this part of the world, 1st of August is what 4th of July is to America, or 15th of August to the Indians. Also known as Schweizer Bundesfeier(German) or Fête nationale(French) or Swiss National Day to us lesser mortals with poor language skills!

I would not bore you with the history or speeches..the latter always making me shout Run!! Run away! But just for a bit of trivia, this was the day in 1291 when Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden - 3 Alpine cantons swore the oath of confederation, an act which later came to be regarded as the foundation of Switzerland.
It is a national holiday, but alas, this year it happens to fall on a Saturday, so no extra holiday. Tough luck!



As for the celebrations, there are some fireworks in some cantons, but in most villages and towns, people light a fire, and enjoy Bratwurst, Büürli and beer - which is basically sausage, bread and beer :-)

One thing I really like is that around this time of the year, you can find the swiss flag almost anywhere - right from mugs, T-shirts and fondue pots to eggs, bread, even cheese and meat!
I picked up this bread which is specially made for the 1st of August, and has cute little Swiss flags, along with a '+', again from the flag - simply called Swiss national day bread. Nice, isn't it. Have fun again y'all Share

4 comments:

  1. Very cute! Happy 1st of August! Have a great time!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  2. Happy national day. Thanks for dropping by my blog :-) You have a wonderful space here too :-)

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  3. Happy National Day. Wow..that is a lovely bread.

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  4. Happy national day! Thanks for visiting my blog =) You have a lovely blog urself, very beautiful pictures.

    ReplyDelete