Why the First of August? Well, because it is the Swiss National Holiday.
It has not been celebrated for so long – this is only the 11th year as a national holiday, but it commemorates the signature of the Federal Charter of 1291, which has been recognised more recently as the initial declaration of a Swiss Confederacy. If you accept that accounting, the Swiss Confederacy is 724 years old this year.
Since 1994 it has become the practice to make a fireworks display in many different places, generally public demonstrations like the one in Geneva out over the Lac Leman and generally celebrate the occasion like many other countries do. There are usually a lot of private parties with fireworks as well, but this year, it is likely that most of the fireworks will be called off. The reason has nothing to do with the politics. We have had a long hot dry summer in most of the country, and most cantons have banned open fires for any reason because of the risk of field and forest fires. We have had some rain recently (serious thunderstorms in some areas) and the temperatures are mostly not so high now (mid-20’s instead of mid-30’s = low 80’s instead of mid-90’s in Fahrenheit), it is likely that the bans will continue past the 1st of August this year.
Today (24 July) the temperatures are getting up there again (30-32 C) with high humidity, but there is supposed to be a cool front early this evening and the temperatures for this weekend and next week should be cool. We will see!
In any case, happy First of August!
