Popular customs and festivals in Switzerland

St. Martin, as well as being a religious festival, corresponds with the end of the annual cycle of working the fields.

Since 1891, the first of August has been celebrated as Swiss National Day.

Aarau wird nicht nur von der Aare, sondern auch vom Stadtbach durchflossen, einem künstlich angelegten Wasserlauf, der früher das unentbehrliche Nass von einer Quelle in die Stadt führte.

Late in the morning of a wintry day in January - alternately January 13, 20 or 27 - a raft with a very strange crew floats down the River Rhine. There are two drummers, two men carrying big flags, and two cannoneers, who repeatedly fire gun salutes.

The Fasnacht (carnival) in Basel is recognized as the largest popular festival in Switzerland, with some 15,000 to 20,000 masked participants taking part. The prelude is the Morgestraich on the Monday following Ash Wednesday.

Until the Reformation, the Ascension Day Ride around Basel and surrounding areas was an old custom associated with the blessing of the fields and the checking of the boundary stones.

The return of the month of May has always been a time for rejoicing and celebrations, marked by special customs in different regions.

On the fourth Monday in November, the upper part of the old city of Bern between the railway station and the Bundesplatz, the square facing the Parliament buildings, is transformed into a giant marketplace.

Unparalleled in Switzerland is the religious custom celebrated at Beromünster. In the early morning of Ascension Day, a large group on horseback leaves the town for a ride around the fields.

Corpus Christi processions were once celebrated in a majority of Roman Catholic parishes in Switzerland. Many have become the victims of motorization, not to mention the reforms initiated by the Second Vatican Council.