Figure 1.--This is a festival being celebrated in the town of Escharlens. We believe it is a Catholic festival. The children are part of the town choir. |
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We do not yet have enough information and images of Switzerland in our archives to fully develop an activities section. A HBC reader has forwarded us some images of a choir in Escharlens. We believe that is in Switzerland hopefully our Swiss readers will provide some more information. We do have some information on Swiss choirs. We also have some information on Swiss school clothing. We also have some limited information on Swiss youth groups.
HBC currently has little information on Swiss choirs. The choral traditions of neighboring France and Germany have been influential in Switzerland following the linguistic and cultural patterns. The sailor suit appears to be used for choir costumes in the German areas of Switzerland. Some of the Swiss choirs, reflecting the relatively stability of Switzerland and relative success in avoiding major European wars. Some information is available on individual Swiss choirs.
We do not know much about festivals in Switzerland, but they were an important aspect of national life. This was especially the case before World War II when there were relatively limited recreational opportunities and religion was still relatively important. We believe that every village had their own destinctive festivals as well as some that were celebrated in common on a national basis. An important part of most village festivals was a parade or procession through the middle of the village. The image here shows a festival being celebrated in the town of Escharlens (figure 1). Unforunately we do not know much about the festival. The boys involved are from the town choir.
Switzerland's national day is August 1, when the three original cantons of Schwytz, Uri and Unterwald founded back in 1291 our country. This day is celebrated throughout the country down to the smallest village with bonfires burning even up some mountains and hundreds of speeches held by local politicians with nobody
listening to and thousands of sausages etc prepared on BBQs by the local firebrigade volunteers. For children there is no specific clothing. The younger ones walking proudly around with "lampions" (paper globe with a candle burning inside). On top of the national day each of the 23 cantons have their specific celebration day atvarious dates and originating from quite many different roots. Easter and Christmas are celebrated througout Switzerland although there are differences on how they are celebrated as a result the country's varying ethnic and religious composition. The most important holiday for children is of course Christmas.
A Catholic Swiss contributor reports that First Communion is a
large celebration where all is festively dressed. He remembers his
First Communion in April 1970. The children wore long cassocks.
It was a cold day and under his cassock he wore a shirt, sweater,
my long trousers, white tights (strumpfhose) and black shoes. He
also remembers an an Italian boy who wore short trousers and
strumpfhosen.
Switzerland is a multi-ethnic and mult-linguistic country. Until the 1960s, schoolwear was heavily influenced by the different national
groups making up the Swiss union. Boys at schools in French catons, for example, commonly wore smocks while boys at schools
in German catons generally did not. Swiss boys did not normally wear uniforms. Many French schools required that the younger children wear smocks. State schools did not normally establish a specific style, but some private schools did. Today in Swiss schools there are few differences from caton to caton.
Children might run errands for their parents in the years before World War II. These errands were often associated with meals. This was necessary before refrigerators and freezers were common. A lot of food was purchased fresh. They might also pick up items after school. Towns would have market areas. Children would thus pick up bread or other bnecesities. After World War II, shopping took on very different character. We are less sure about shopping for clothes and other items, but it is an interesting topic to be persued.
We do not yet have much information on Swiss youth groups. The Boy Scouts began to organize soon after the movement was founded in Britain (1910) and Guiding began a few years later. We note a variety of different youth groups active in the early 20th century, but have few details about them at this time. We suspect that there may have been some Wandervogel groups in the early 20th century, perhaps even predating Scouting. There were the "Jungschaar" a protestant youth movement and the "Jungwacht" a Catholic Youth movement. We also note the "Kadetten". This was a paramilitary organisation, which flurished mainly in the German part of Switerland and was mandatory in certain Mirddleschools. I think the Kadetten disapperaed in the 1960s. There was not much difference between youth groups in the French and German speaking areas of Switzerland. We suspect that Hitler Youth groups were organized cladestinely during the 1930s, but have few details at this time.
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