August 1st, Swiss National Day

the 1st of August is a Special day in Switzerland. It is Swiss National Day and it marks the anniversary of the meeting of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden in 1291. They met to renew their committment to their alliance. I'm not really sure who Uri, Schwyz or Unterwalden are (or if they're people or just regions) but I imagine that they were poeple and that they rode towards eachother on horseback across an alpine meadow. Or, perhaps they marched with troops along a glacial stream and carried big colorful banners. They would have spoken very loudly and used many grand words. I'm sure they looked quite scary in their full suits of armor and were probably at least 25% covered in blood. And there surely would have been a castle wall or town wall in the distance. But that's not important. The alliance was renewed and upheld for nearly 200 years until they finally broke free from German control following the Swabian war in 1499. Again, I'm not sure what that is either.

What's important now is that on 1 August every one parties. Laura and I had an awfully nice National Day. We celebrated in true 4th of July style with Beer and Fireworks. We did keep Switzerland at the front of our minds though and even ate bread decorated with a Swiss cross for lunch.

In the evening we went to Adelboden's Community festivities which included performances by the town band, the folk dancing club, the yodellers and an extra special apperance of the Scouts from the Chalet singing one local number (Berner Oberland ist Schön) and our very own Chalet song. After that the mayor spoke, in German. None of us understood what he was saying, but even the people who could understand him weren't paying much attention. Everyone was mostly intersted in the amazing double rainbow that stretched from behind Bunderspitz all the way over the Lohners. I've never seen anything so beautiful and perfectly timed.

We finished the night with lots of beer, fireworks and the volunteers. We did such a good job at celebrating Swiss Night that I couldn't get out of bed on Day After National Day. What a waste.

PS: Ruth just came in to remind me that we stayed up until 5 am and she feels that I should have described more about that evening. However, I think "What a waste." describes it quite well.