Switzerland Today

Hello from Bern,

Here's our selection of news and stories from Switzerland this Christmas Eve. Wishing you all a happy and healthy holiday.

Keystone / Ayse Yavas

In the News: Swiss composer passes away; and there’s a new chief at UN peacekeeping operations in the Middle East

• Swiss colonel Patrick Gauchat has taken up his post as head of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). UNTSO is the oldest UN peacekeeping operation, launched in 1948 by the UN Security Council to monitor the ceasefire in the Middle East and supervise the implementation of the Israel-Arab Armistice Agreements. This is the first time a Swiss leads a UN peacekeeping operation.
• Swiss composer, conductor and pianist Jürg Wyttenbach passed away on Wednesday at 86 years old announced the Federal Office of Culture today. Wyttenbach, who retired in 2002, won the Swiss Music Prize in 2017. Here is a videoExternal link with more about the composer.

Keystone / Michael Buholzer

Omicron creates turbulence for the airline industry.

Just as airlines were starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel (or runway rather), Omicron has once again creating turbulence for the airline industry. The number of passengers is falling again, forcing airlines to cancel flightsExternal link. On Thursday, the German airline Lufthansa, which owns SWISS, announced it is cancelling nearly 33,000 flights – or about 10% of the connections planned for the winter period. 

According to Le Temps, SWISS has not announced flight cancellations but has observed a decline in bookings. For Christmas, Geneva Airport expects to see half as many passengers as in 2019. Moreover, airlines are facing personnel shortages as staff are out sick or in quarantine.

The airlines may be less worried about cancellations over the holidays though. One transport specialist interviewed by the paper said that the worst may be yet to come for the industry, “Christmas flights are seen as a ‘mandatory’ trip,” writes the paper. The real concern is the vacation and business travel for January and February.

On an optimistic note, a SWISS representative told the paper that it expects demand to return in the spring and there to be an upswing in last-minute bookings. One airline specialist said, “If we want to be optimistic, we can tell ourselves that it is better for the Omicron variant to appear now than in June”.

© Keystone / Gaetan Bally

What’s on the menu tonight? Fondue Chinoise, a nice roast or a melting pot of vegan cheese?

In Covid times, Christmas may not be what it used to be, but it doesn’t have to spell the end of a nice meal. But what the meal looks like is slightly different across the country.

The Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported today that the most popular Christmas dinnerExternal link in Switzerland is Fondue Chinoise. I would describe this as a distant cousin to Chinese Hot Pot or Japanese Shabu Shabu where pieces of meat and vegetables are dipped into bouillon and accompanied by sauces. 

“Fondue Chinoise is by far the best-selling Christmas dish in all regions,” Migros spokesperson Tristan Cerf told the NZZ. The dish has little to do with the original meaning of fondue (melted), but its success comes from the fact that it takes little preparation since guests sit around the table and cook for themselves.

Poultry dishes like turkey or goose are more popular in the western part of the country. Some of the classic French dishes such as foie gras can be found in the French-speaking region but animal welfare concerns have dipped its popularity. And, if you are looking for a challenge, there is the “Filet im Teig” or pork filet in puff pastry, which is popular in German-speaking Switzerland. Vegans looking to keep tradition but without the meat are also finding more options such as this vegan fondue mixExternal link featured on Swiss public television SRF.

The biggest culinary difference though, writes the NZZ, is dessert. In western Switzerland, hardly any family forgets to buy a “Bûche de Noël” or Yule log cake while you’ll get strange looks from the bakery if you ask for such a treat the farther east you go. 

How do you keep holiday traditions alive where you live? Here’s a story from Le Temps about a Swiss woman living in KenyaExternal link and how she’ll be celebrating Christmas.