Last year we weren't in Switzerland for Swiss National Day but since we arrived about a week after it, the supermarkets were selling off the remnants of celebratory supplies emblazoned with the red and white of the Swiss flag. I was curious to know how the Swiss celebrate their day of national pride. In Australia, we usually celebrate our national day by drinking a cold drink (usually beer) with some good BBQ food and if you're lucky enough to have or know someone with a pool then you go for a good cool down in the water.
Swiss national day is held on 1st August and was only introduced as a national holiday in 1994 and it celebrates the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy. In the weeks leading up to the start of August, signs were popping up around the place informing people of the events that were to happen around the country. We knew that there was going to be fireworks etc around the place but that's all we really knew. We briefly talked to our landlady who lives below us and she recommended that we go into Martigny on the night of 1st August because they put on a fantastic display of "feux d'artifice" which shoot off the top of the chateau that is prominently propped on the side of a mountain overlooking the town.
Our town was also holding a fête for the celebrations on the 31st July. We briefly checked it out but it just looked like a place for the locals to go for some cheese and wine. We went back home, watched some movies and went to bed. At midnight we were woken up rather abruptly by what I thought at the time was some kind of invasion. For those of you that don't know, our town is very small and nestled between a large cliff face and some mountains so what I briefly thought was someone taking over the country was just the noise of the celebratory fireworks from the fête bouncing off the cliff and mountains. I wound up our blinds to have a quick gander at the display, yawned, wound the blinds back down and sleepily hopped back into bed to try and get back to sleep. The ruckus lasted for about 20-30 mins and it was getting louder and louder so there wasn't much getting back to sleep for us. Where was our memo telling us that we were going to get rudely awoken at midnight? Ha.. Perhaps we should have read the event timetable a little closer and it might have saved me from thinking that I would have to spend some time in our bunker in our basement - yes we have a bunker (used for storage but it has a huge metal door about a foot thick).
So it was a rather eventful start to our first Swiss National Day. It's fun discovering the eccentricities of this country we're calling home. I heard from a friend that she went to an event in her town where they were having a wine tasting and then playing archery. Drunken archery!! HA! Awesome!
We were invited by some of Roy's work friends to go over to their place in Martigny and have some fondue - french style, for dinner. As you can imagine with us living so close to the French border that there is a little bit of rivalry going on about who does the best fondue. French fondue is the same as Swiss fondue but with French cheese and wine. To me it all just tastes like tasty, molten cheese so I was happy either way. As we were eating we were entertained by the neighbours up the street with their own fireworks display. The part I like about holidays in Switzerland is that they sell fireworks in the supermarket!
It just so happened that these people had an apartment with a nice view of the chateau so we were in a great spot to watch the fireworks. In true Swiss style the fireworks started at exactly the stated time so there was no waiting around for it to start. There were some very impressive fireworks in the show and it was a big novelty to have huge mountains surrounding us and the fireworks lighting up the side of the mountains as they exploded in bright colours.
The only thing that I would change about our Swiss National Day for next year is I would buy some fireworks so we could have some fun with them beforehand.
Swiss national day is held on 1st August and was only introduced as a national holiday in 1994 and it celebrates the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy. In the weeks leading up to the start of August, signs were popping up around the place informing people of the events that were to happen around the country. We knew that there was going to be fireworks etc around the place but that's all we really knew. We briefly talked to our landlady who lives below us and she recommended that we go into Martigny on the night of 1st August because they put on a fantastic display of "feux d'artifice" which shoot off the top of the chateau that is prominently propped on the side of a mountain overlooking the town.
Our town was also holding a fête for the celebrations on the 31st July. We briefly checked it out but it just looked like a place for the locals to go for some cheese and wine. We went back home, watched some movies and went to bed. At midnight we were woken up rather abruptly by what I thought at the time was some kind of invasion. For those of you that don't know, our town is very small and nestled between a large cliff face and some mountains so what I briefly thought was someone taking over the country was just the noise of the celebratory fireworks from the fête bouncing off the cliff and mountains. I wound up our blinds to have a quick gander at the display, yawned, wound the blinds back down and sleepily hopped back into bed to try and get back to sleep. The ruckus lasted for about 20-30 mins and it was getting louder and louder so there wasn't much getting back to sleep for us. Where was our memo telling us that we were going to get rudely awoken at midnight? Ha.. Perhaps we should have read the event timetable a little closer and it might have saved me from thinking that I would have to spend some time in our bunker in our basement - yes we have a bunker (used for storage but it has a huge metal door about a foot thick).
So it was a rather eventful start to our first Swiss National Day. It's fun discovering the eccentricities of this country we're calling home. I heard from a friend that she went to an event in her town where they were having a wine tasting and then playing archery. Drunken archery!! HA! Awesome!
We were invited by some of Roy's work friends to go over to their place in Martigny and have some fondue - french style, for dinner. As you can imagine with us living so close to the French border that there is a little bit of rivalry going on about who does the best fondue. French fondue is the same as Swiss fondue but with French cheese and wine. To me it all just tastes like tasty, molten cheese so I was happy either way. As we were eating we were entertained by the neighbours up the street with their own fireworks display. The part I like about holidays in Switzerland is that they sell fireworks in the supermarket!
It just so happened that these people had an apartment with a nice view of the chateau so we were in a great spot to watch the fireworks. In true Swiss style the fireworks started at exactly the stated time so there was no waiting around for it to start. There were some very impressive fireworks in the show and it was a big novelty to have huge mountains surrounding us and the fireworks lighting up the side of the mountains as they exploded in bright colours.
The only thing that I would change about our Swiss National Day for next year is I would buy some fireworks so we could have some fun with them beforehand.
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