Happy Birthday Switzerland!
The 1st of August, Switzerland's National day, is celebrated everywhere, as it always has been, with meetings in town squares, fetes, fireworks and bonfires.
Swiss flags wave all over the country, folk and traditional music enlivens the entire day, while kids have fun setting off firecrackers and parading through the villages with traditional lanterns.
The institution of the national celebration day dates back to 1891, but it actually celebrates an event 700 years old and indeed, the heart of the celebrations is based on a tradition more than a thousand years old. To celebrate the homeland, this day was chosen because right on the 1st of August 1291, three of the alpine cantons (Uri, Schwitz and Unterwalden) vowed to be faithfull to the Confederation, the act considered as the foundation of Switzerland and which took place on Grütli field, overlooking the Urnersee.
