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ABOUT THE SWISS NATIONAL DAY

1 AUGUST (AND ALL NATIONAL SYMBOLS OF SWITZERLAND : ITS FLAG, ITS EMBLEM, ITS ANTHEM)

BY EVELINA RIOUKHINA, UNECE

In our closest neighbour, France, for example, National Day is 14 July and is known as Bastille Day. It is widely celebrated and the French Tricolour, is much in evidence, while the President of the Republic attends a mili­tary parade on the Champs-Elysées of Paris. In the host country of the United Nations Headquarters, USA, the National Day celebrated the date of the adoption of the De­claration of Independence (4th July, 1776). Now usually called "Fourth July", it is the federal holiday, celebrated with fireworks and BBQs. In some countries the national day ce­lebrates the country's independence, such as in Kenya, the host country of UNON - United Nations Office at Nairobi, the Jamhuri Day (12 December), or in Ethiopia, the home of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) where the National Day is the Day of the Declaration of Neutrality and defeat of the Mengistu regime, and is celebrated on 28 May. Most countries have a fixed date National Day, but some have movable dates. For example, in Thailand, the home country of one of the important United Nations duty stations including the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the National Day celebrates the birthday of the King on 5 December. This date will change on the accession of the heir to the throne. Whatever the history or the tradition of the national day of the country, the staff of the United Nations working in the respective countries observes, respects and celebrates the national day together with the citizens of the host countries. Our host country, the home of the "European" headquarters of the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG) and the headquarter of the Economic Commission for Europe (ECE) and other international organisations, celebrates the Swiss National Day (German: Nationalfeiertag; French: Fête nationale Suisse; Italian: Festa nazionale Svizzera; Romanisch: Fiasta naziunala Svizra) on the 1st of August.
This day has a rich history that dates back to more than 700 years (please see the detailed article on this subject in the previous UNSpecial about Wilhelm Tell and the Oath at Grütli). The history tells us about the event when delegates from three cantons: Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden - the so called "Ur-Kantone" - met at the plateau de Grütli and swore to act jointly if their freedom were threatened by outside aggressors and promised that "we will be a one and only nation of brothers...". This took place, as mentioned in the Federal Charter of 1291, in "early August" (primo incipience mense Augusto", the document from where the date 1 August originates. The celebration for the first time took place in Berne in 1891, marking the 600th anniversary of the charter. It became an official national holiday in 1994 and now it is known as Swiss National Day. It is celebrated with townwide paper lantern parades, bonfires, hanging strings of swiss flags and fireworks. In the later years Swiss national symbols become more and more significant during the celebration. Since the accession of Switzerland to the United Nations in 2002 it has also been celebrated by United Nations staff working in Switzerland.

Origin of the Swiss Flag
The characteristic white cross and the red background of Switzerland's flag have their origin to the 13th century. Until 1648, Switzerland was still part of the German Empire. The member states of the Old Swiss Confederacy did not try to build a nation, they just wanted to get rid of the counts of Habsburg that had tried to strengthen their influence. In the 13th century, the German emperor carried with him a flag with the cross as a holy sign, understanding himself as a protector of Christianity. He also carried a blood-red flag as a sign of his power over life and death. Occasionally, he granted the right to carry such flags as a special honour to single cities or regions. (The Dukes of Savoy and the city of Vienna bear a white cross on red ground on their coat of arms. The Scandinavian countries and Great Britain have a cross on their flags.) Often the right to bear a cross on one's coat of arms and on a flag was granted together with other privileges, like direct immediacy [direct subordination under the emperor's jurisdiction without subordination of counts]. The canton of Schwyz in central Switzerland, one of the three founding members of the Old Swiss Confederacy, and the one whose name was later in history used to denote the confederacy as a whole, was granted immediacy in 1240 and carried a red flag from the middle of the 13th century (yet still without the white cross). In 1289 they supported King Rudolf of Habsburg in a war against Burgundy and re­ceived as a recognition the right to represent the crucifixion of Christ and the tools used to torture him in the upper right field on their flag. Originally they painted this symbol on parchment and fastened it on the banner. Only later was the cross symbol painted directly on the banner. In descriptions of the battle of Laupen (1339), white stripes for­ming crosses are mentioned for the first time as a joint recognition sign of confederate troops. The white stripes were fastened on the soldier's breast, back, shoulders, arms, leg, hats or weapons.
Brief historical fact: when the Swiss flag was tricolour: During the Helvetic period (1798 - 1803) Napoleon forbade the Swiss to wear the cross and instead made them carry a tricoloured flag of green, red and yellow.

The "Swiss Cross" as a national symbol
General Henri-Guillaume Dufour, charged with training a small federal cadre of troops in 1817, championed the idea of a federal flag for Switzerland. He argued that cantons flying the same flag were more likely to feel fraternity and come to each other's aid in times of crisis. The flag first flew at nationwide mili­tary manœuvres in 1821, and gradually caught the popular imagination. This flag went to war for the first and only time with Dufour's federal army as it suppressed the Sonderbund forces in the short civil war of 1847. The federal flag consisted of a stocky white cross, made up of five equal squares on a red field. In 1889 the Federal Assembly ruled that Switzerland would keep its white cross, but that it would be changed from the five equal squares to one in which the arms were one sixth longer than they were wide. This last change in the flag actually brought it into conformity with the cross on the state seal of 1815. It is evident from its history that the Swiss national flag evolved from war flags. The form of the Swiss flag is square. The only other square flag in the world is that of the Vatican, which was probably adopted from that of the Pope's Swiss Guard.

A curious fact from the very recent history of the Swiss flag: When Switzerland joined the UN in 2002, UN protocol officials faced an unusual problem: the Swiss flag is square, but UN rules say that all flags flying at its headquarters must be oblong. Fortunately this was overridden by another rule, to the effect that a new flag may be hoisted as long as its total area does not exceed that of the regular flags.

Switzerland and its anthem, or how a church hymn became a national anthem
In the summer of 1841, Alberik Zwyssig (1808-1854), a priest and composer from Uri, was visiting his brother at St. Carl, a magnificent patrician's house at the gates of Zug, when he received mail from Leonhard Widmer (1809-1867), a music publisher, journalist and lyricist from Zurich. The mail contained a patriotic poem that Widmer had written and wanted set to music. Zwyssig chose to use a hymn that he had composed to the psalm "Diligam te Domine" (I will love Thee, 0 Lord) for an ordination service in 1835 when he was music director at the monastery in Wettingen. The Swiss government declared the "Schweizer-psalm" (Swiss Psalm), a fully and unmistakably Swiss creation, the provisional Swiss national anthem in 1961. Twelve cantons voted in favor of the "Swiss Psalm", seven requested an extension of the trial period and no fewer than six rejected it as the official national anthem. In spite of these mixed reactions, the "Swiss Psalm" was confirmed (provisionally) as the Swiss national anthem in 1965. Finally, on April 1, 1981, the "Swiss Psalm" was officially declared the Swiss national anthem, "a purely Swiss song, dignified and ceremonial, the kind of national anthem that the majority of our citizens would like to have." The Cantique Suisse in French was written by Charles Chatelanat (1833-1907) (the text is given below), the Italian Salmo svizzero is written by Camillo Valsangiacomo (1898-1978), and the Romanisch Psalm svizzer is written in Ladin is by Gion Antoni Buhler (1825-1897) and in Sursilvan by Alfons Tuor (1871-1904). The English translation of the lyrics is given below (N.B. The English translations don't include the fourth verse for some unknown reason).