Switzerland Today
Greetings from Bern,
Where, for some reason, there’s a whiff of grilled Cervelat sausage in the air… Read on for more updates on Sunday’s National Day (including a patriotic quiz), as well as more good news from the Tokyo Olympics.
Word from the street – Holiday time
Sunday, as you should know, is Swiss National Day. Covid put a dampener on last year’s festivities, but this time should be more upbeat, if the sun shines. Many municipalities are planning public parties, though others are still being careful – in Basel, the fireworks display on the Rhine is called off, while in Bern, parliament square will be empty. Overall, as SRF writesExternal link, the August 1 plans represent a mirror of Swiss federalism itself – “every municipality is finding its own solution”.
How will you be celebrating August 1 abroad? On Sunday, our website will showcase a compilation of videos sent in by the Swiss abroad family on their plans for the celebrations overseas. Also featured on Sunday is an address by current President Guy Parmelin (a “postcard”, in his words) dedicated to the Swiss abroad (a “mini-Switzerland”, also his words).
In the meantime, social network Facebook has jumped on the August 1 bandwagon, writes persoenlich.comExternal link. Starting on Sunday, and for a week, various Facebook functions will appear in Swiss German. For Swiss users with language preferences set to standard German, “Like” will become “Findi guet!”, “Leave a comment” will be “Gib din Sänf dezue” [literally, “add your mustard”], while “Weiterleiten” (forward, in high German) will become “Wiiterschickä”. It’s not clear if Mark Zuckerberg, whose name literally means “mountain of sugar”, will become Mark Zuckerbäärg.
In the news – more Olympic medals
Switzerland continues its good run at the Tokyo Olympics. With bronze in the 200m medley on Friday, swimmer Jérémy Desplanches has won the country’s ninth medal of the games. It’s the 200th time in summer Olympic history that a Swiss athlete has stood on the podium. After just a week, the team has already beaten its tally of seven medals from the 2016 games in Rio. This weekend, tennis player Belinda Bencic is the focus: on Saturday she plays in the singles final and on Sunday in the doubles final with Viktorija Golubic.
A post-mortem after May’s CO2-law vote has tried to shed some light on why Swiss citizens rejected new measures to curb climate change. Unsurprisingly, the key factor was financial, the study found: almost all respondents said they wanted climate action, but not enough were willing to take the hit that this particular law would mean for their wallets. Strong opposition to two other environmental issues, on the ballot the same day, also rubbed off on the CO2 vote.
Factcheck – First of August trivia
Finally, in the spirit of daily newspaper 20 Minuten, which today tested its readers with an August 1 quiz (in which canton is the Rütli meadow? Which other country celebrates its national day on August 1?), we have come up with some teasers of our own:
True or false? According to an obscure sub-clause in the Federal Constitution, any citizen who can eat more than 12.91 kg of cheese on August 1 (the amount corresponding to Switzerland’s founding year) will receive 12.91 tonnes of Cervelat sausage as a prize. Nobody has yet achieved this.
True or false? This year, because of Covid, authorities have ruled that the key of the Swiss national anthem be lowered to Bb major, since the singing of higher notes tends to release more spores into the air. Also, citizens in 2021 are only allowed to sing the “Schweizerpsalm” to a maximum of 57 decibels each.
True or false? Each year, from midnight August 1 to midnight August 2, one of the seven federal councillors must physically set foot in every of the 26 cantons – travelling using only the nationwide system of yellow Postbuses. Simonetta Sommaruga, who was President last year, managed 23; this year Guy Parmelin is aiming for all 26.
True or false? Although it has been celebrated since 1891, August 1 was not a holiday in many Swiss cantons until 1994, when a people’s initiative to make it such was accepted in a nationwide vote (we had to put at least one right answer into this…)
Anything less than four correct answers means you lose your passport. Happy August 1!
In compliance with the JTI standards
More: SWI swissinfo.ch certified by the Journalism Trust Initiative
