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LIVING IN SWITZERLAND

REVEALED: The Swiss cities turning off their lights for weekend meteor shower

The Perseids is one of the best annual meteor showers, showing their fireballs on warm summer nights in the northern hemisphere. In Switzerland, some towns want to make the event even more special by turning off their lights.

Published: 12 August 2022 16:11 CEST
REVEALED: The Swiss cities turning off their lights for weekend meteor shower
A Perseid meteor streaks across the sky above a camping site at the Negev desert near the city of Mitzpe Ramon, Israel, on August 11th, 2020 during the Perseids meteor shower, which occurs every year when the Earth passes through the cloud of debris left by the comet Swift-Tuttle. (Photo by MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP)

Every year, skywatchers get ready for the Perseid meteor shower, which in 2022 is going to peak in the early hours of Saturday, just before dawn. At its peak, it will be possible to see about 200 shooting starts per hour if the conditions are optimal.

The Perseids, as this particular meteor shower is known, are fragments of the comet Swift-Tuttle. Its small dust particles (not actual stars) burn up when they enter Earth’s atmosphere at high speed. They can be observed worldwide but are best viewed in the northern hemisphere.

READ ALSO: Five beautiful Swiss villages located near Alpine lakes

And they may be in large parts of Switzerland. Despite the full moon blocking some of the views (don’t worry, the moon should set at around 2 am), the skies should be clear of clouds during the early hours of Saturday, according to the Swiss meteorology agency MeteoSchweiz.

Some cities also want to remove another major obstacle to stargazing: the artificial lightning that hides most of our stars, the Milky Way, and many shooting stars. The Projet Perseides invites Swiss towns to turn off municipal lights and incentivise stargazing.

The project, created in the French-speaking cantons, has gathered support mainly in western Swiss, but, according to the organisers: “Ultimately, we are targeting the whole of Europe”.

Which cities are participating?

You can find the complete list of municipalities here. The communes include Champagne, Grandson, La Chaux, Lausanne, Neuchâtel, Provence, Yverdon-les-Bains, Fribourg, and more than 100 others.

The project invites the municipalities to turn off their public lightning and convince citizens and businesses to do the same – all voluntarily.

READ ALSO: Travel: What are the best night train routes to and from Switzerland?

Projet Perseides started in Orbe in 2019 when the non-profit association convinced the town and surrounding municipalities to turn out the lights. In 2020, nearly 120 Vaud cities joined the project. The following year, they were joined by cities in Valais, Fribourg and Neuchâtel, according to the site.

What if my city is not among them?

Even if your city is not a part of the project, it is still possible to watch the phenomenon. The best time would be between 2 am (when the bright full moon sets) and pre-dawn hours, so until around 5 am.

The association says: “to enjoy the night, don’t look at light sources. Let your eyes become accustomed to the darkness”. This includes ditching your phone for a few hours.

If you can visit a part of town with little artificial light, perhaps going up a mountain, for example, you also improve your chances of seeing more of the shower.

Member comments

  1. How about you pay women equal to men for the work they do. Then fix the retirement age. Let’s hit salary parity first. Let’s have four day work weeks so that women can more comfortably raise a family.

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LIVING IN SWITZERLAND

Is it legal to burn a Swiss flag?

This may seem like a strange question, except that it has been voted on in Switzerland’s National Council this week.

Published: 16 April 2024 14:53 CEST
Is it legal to burn a Swiss flag?

The Swiss are generally very patriotic and have a strong sense of national pride and identity. It would therefore be reasonable to expect that burning, or otherwise desecrating, their flag would be illegal, as it is in many countries.

However, the National Council’s Legal Affairs Committee rejected this week by 15 votes to 10 a motion submitted by MP Jean-Luc Addor, which aimed to outlaw intentional destruction of “Swiss flag and other emblems of Swiss sovereignty”.

What does the current legislation say in this matter?

Interestingly, the law states that no flag (either Swiss, cantonal, or municipal) can be desecrated if it is displayed by authorities, though no such limits are imposed in the private sphere.

In other words, if a flag is flown in “official” capacity on August 1st, Swiss national holiday, and someone inflicts intentional damage to it, then yes, that is illegal.

But if, say, football fans tear or burn the flag after a game because the Swiss team lost, this is perfectly legal.

Addor, the MP who filed the motion, argued however that the flag, which is a symbol of Switzerland, “must be protected, regardless of where it is displayed or by whom it is displayed”.

Freedom of expression

The majority of the National Council Committee disagreed with this stance, however.

They pointed out that destroying public property can’t be treated in the same way (from a legal perspective) as destroying one’s own personal belongings.

The official line is that “even if such signs of protest [in the private sphere] express dissatisfaction with the State, they cannot be criminalised out of respect for freedom of expression and the principle of proportionality”.

Committee members added that even though neighbours Germany, Italy and Austria want to “protect their emblems of sovereignty, in Switzerland, such provisions would not be effective”.

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