Swiss National Day

The Swiss National Day  is the national holiday of Switzerland, set on August 1st
 It is an official national holiday since 1994, although the day had been suggested for the celebration of the foundation of the Swiss Confederacy as early as 1889.

The day kicked off with a bang!
Oh yes....at 6am the cannons reverberated around the hills for the early morning wake up call.
Rise and shine people, its time to crack open the Schnapps and fire up the hot plates
for a communal breakfast on the village green. As the golden glow of dawn wraps its long tendrils around the valley the day is celebrated with a toast....which seems to flow on through the day and well in to the night.
No one can complain that they don't make the most of a special occasion here.
Every town celebrates in its own way with a huge amount of energy, pride and local taxes put into the grand finale....a fireworks specular to out do any other.
Well, with the exception of the Olympics Games.
As dusk settles on across the canton every mountain top is lit up with blazing bonfires and with great antisipation the night sky is cut into a thousand sparkling lanterns of colour and sound.
To top off a truly special day on our short walk home we were treated to another seven spectucular shows happening in other villages around the mountains.

The assult on all our sences lasted for more than half an hour and the exciting bit is, our new apartment has the best view in all of Leysin for the stunning show!

We were invited to celebrate the evening with good friends and learn a thing or two about our adopted countries Special Day.

The kids and I got creative and made sweet chilli philli dip to take to the party!

Not a bad job.