Do You Know About Republic Day?
The 1st of March is a holiday called “Republic Day” in one canton in Switzerland.
I ran across this in Wikipedia a few days ago. “Republic Day” is celebrated in Canton Neuchâtel, and a very short explanation follows.
After a few changes of ownership from the earliest mention of Neuchâtel as a territory in 1032, the territory was a Principality belonging to King Frederick William III of Prussia (the House of Hohenzollern), and in 1815 Neuchâtel joined the Swiss Confederation – then not a nation, but a loose association of cantons – as the only monarchy in the group. In 1848 – the same year that the modern Confederatio Helvetica was proclaimed as a full confederation – a bloodless revolution proclaimed a democracy in Neuchâtel. Frederick William IV did not agree, and there were some years of problems between the pro and anti democrats. In 1857, Frederick William IV gave in and the Republic of Neuchâtel was finally secured.
The holiday is to remember the conversion of the Principality to the Republic of Neuchâtel. The revolution started on February 29, an auspicious day for the modern Republic and Canton of Neuchâtel, (http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuch%C3%A2tel) but the date of the holiday is set by the arrival of the declaration of the new Republic at the château de Neuchâtel in the early hours of the 1st of March, 1848.
Reublic is one of two holidays that are celebrated by only one canton in Switzerland. The other is the “jeûne genevois” which is celebrated in Geneva in September each year (the date is the Thursday after the first Sunday in September).
It would be wrong to say that we celebrate the Neuchâtel Republic Day holiday in Unterägeri, but we have marked down all our lady’s handbags by 20% as an inside-the-store-special. Come and get yours while there are still some left!
Oh, by the way, if you are a US-American, you might be interested to know that the first of March is also Peanut Butter Lovers Day and (USA) National Pig Day. Yup, it’s true!
Do You Know About Republic Day?