🇨🇠Switzerland
Swiss National Day, known locally as Bundesfeier, marks the traditional founding of the Swiss Confederacy through the Federal Charter of 1291. Observed every August 1, it is Switzerland's official national holiday, celebrated nationwide with bonfires, fireworks, and community gatherings that mark the country's long history of confederation among its cantons.
Each August 1, communities across Switzerland mark National Day with bonfires lit on hillsides, fireworks displays, and children's paper lantern parades held after dark. Celebrations happen mainly at the local and cantonal level rather than through one central national event, with towns organizing their own gatherings. In Rütli Meadow above Lake Lucerne, a commemorative ceremony recalls the legendary founding oath. In Basel, fireworks light up the Rhine the evening before. Many businesses and schools close, and Swiss communities abroad, from New York to Uruguay, hold their own National Day celebrations.
The date commemorates the Federal Charter of 1291, a pact in which representatives of the cantons of Schwyz, Uri, and Unterwalden swore mutual support, an event later regarded as the founding moment of the Swiss Confederacy. For centuries, the more prominent founding legend centered on a different date, the 1307 Rütli oath, but a report in 1889 elevated the 1291 charter, and Bern staged a large celebration in 1891 combining the city's 700th anniversary with the Confederacy's 600th. The date only became an official public holiday in 1994, after Swiss voters approved a federal popular initiative the year before, recognizing a tradition that had been observed annually since the 1890s.
In Britain, August 1 is also celebrated as Yorkshire Day, and the tea company Bettys, founded by a Swiss baker, marks both occasions in its Yorkshire cafés.
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