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LIVING IN SWITZERLAND

When are the public holidays in Switzerland in 2022?

Switzerland has very few national public holidays, when most businesses, schools, and other institutions are closed. But there are many that are celebrated on a regional or cantonal level. Here’s a list of what is commemorated where and when.

Published: 28 December 2021 13:06 CET
Updated: 4 January 2022 11:19 CET
Mark all the Swiss public holidays in your 2022 calendar. Photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash
Mark all the Swiss public holidays in your 2022 calendar. Photo by Eric Rothermel on Unsplash

As with everything in Switzerland, things differ widely from canton to canton.

There are only four holidays nationally:

January 1st (New Year’s Day), Ascension Day (May 13th in 2021), August 1st (National Day), December 25th (Christmas Day).

Technically speaking, Easter Sunday is also a national holiday, however it always falls on a Sunday. 

What else do you need to know? 

If the holiday falls on a weekend,  as Easter Sunday does, you do not get an extra weekday holiday in lieu.

For the purposes of this article the abbreviations for the 26 Swiss cantons are as follows:

Aargau (AG), Appenzell Innerrhoden (AI), Appenzel Ausserhoden (AR), Bern (BE), Basel-Country (BL), Basel-City (BS), Fribourg (FR), Geneva (GE), Glarus (GL), Graubünden (GR), Jura (JU), Lucerne (LU), Neuchâtel (NE), Nidwalden, (NW), Obwalden (OW) Schwyz (SZ),  Schaffhausen (SH), Solothurn (SO), St. Gallen (SG), Ticino (TI), Thurgau (TG), Uri (UR), Valais (VS), Vaud (VD), Zug (ZG), Zurich (ZH)

READ MORE: Why is Switzerland divided into 26 cantons?

January:

1st: New Year’s Day, National

2nd: Saint Berchtold’s Day , AG, BE, FR, GL, JU, LU, OW, SH, TG, VD

6th: Epiphany, GR, LU, SZ, TI, UR

March:

1st: Republic Day,  NE

19th: St Joseph’s Day,   GR, LU, NW, SZ, TI, UR, VS

April:

15th: Good Friday, national except TI and VS

17th:  Easter Sunday, national

16th: Easter Monday,  national except NE, SO, VS, ZG

READ MORE: Easter trees and egg smashing: how to celebrate Easter the Swiss way

Easter Sunday always falls on…Sunday. Photo by Oliver Wiesenberg from Pexels
 

May:

1st: Labour Day,   BL, BS, JU, LU, NE, SH, SO, TG, TI, ZH

26th: Ascension Day,  national

June:

3rd: Corpus Christi,  national except AR, BL, BS, BE, GE, GL, NE, SH, SG, TG, VD, ZH

6th: Whit Monday,  national except NE, SO, VS, ZG

23rd:  Independence of Jura, JU

29th:  St Peter and St Paul,  GR, TI

August:

1st: National Day,  national

15th,  Assumption Day,     AG, AI, FR, JU, LU, NW, OW, SO, SZ, TI, UR, VS, ZG

READ MORE: Why Switzerland celebrates its national day on August 1st

September:

8th:  Jeûne genevois,   GE

18th:  Day after the Federal Fast,   VD

22nd:  St Mauritius,  AI

25th:  Brother Klaus Festival,   OW

November:

1st:    All Saints’ Day,  national except AR, BL, BS, BE, GE, GR, NE, SH, TG, VD, ZH

December:

8th:  Immaculate Conception,   AG, AI, FR, GR, LU, NW, OW, SZ, TI, UR, VS, ZG

24th: Christmas Eve, GL

25th:  Christmas Day, national

Hopefully, Christmas will be without restrictions in 2022. Photo by Brett Sayles from Pexels

31st:  New Year’s Eve, GL

31st: Restoration Day, GE

READ MORE: Three Swiss Christmas traditions you should know about

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LIVING IN SWITZERLAND

REVEALED: How Switzerland’s native-English speakers are growing in number

Some Swiss cities have higher concentrations of foreign residents than others. A new study reveals where most of them live and interestingly how more and more of them are native English-speakers.

Published: 23 April 2024 15:21 CEST
Updated: 28 April 2024 08:45 CEST
REVEALED: How Switzerland's native-English speakers are growing in number

Foreigners who move to Switzerland like to settle in the cities.

This is what emerges from a new study published by the Federal Statistical Office (FSO) on Tuesday.

Surprisingly, the municipality with the highest number of foreign residents is not Zurich or Geneva, but Kreuzlingen in canton Thurgau, where 56.3 percent of the population are foreigners.

Next is Rorschach in St. Gallen, where just over half (50.6 percent) of residents are foreign.

In terms of regions, however, more towns in the French-speaking part of the country have a high proportion of non-Swiss.

In the first place is the Lausanne suburb of Renens, where 49.3 percent of inhabitants are foreign.

It is followed by Geneva (49.2 percent) and its districts Meyrin (45.4 percent) and Vernier (44.8 percent). Next are Vaud municipalities of Montreux (44.2 percent) and Yverdon (37.7 percent).

The study doesn’t indicate why exactly so many immigrants move to these particular towns, but generally new arrivals tend to settle in or near places where they work.

Another interesting finding: English language is gaining ground

“If we consider non-national languages, it is striking to see that English has developed significantly,” FSO reports.

“It is today the main language of 8.1 percent of the resident population.”

This has also been shown in another FSO study in March, which indicated that  English is not only the most prevalent foreign language in Switzerland, but in some regions even ‘outperforms’ national languages.

In French-speaking Geneva, for instance, 11.8 percent of the population speak English — more than 5.7 percent who speak Italian. And in the neighbouring Vaud, 9.1 percent of residents speak English, versus 4.9 percent for both German and Italian.

In Basel-City, where the main language is German, 12.5 percent speak English, 6.1 percent Italian, and 5 percent French.

And in Zurich,10.8 percent speak English, versus only 5.8 percent for Italian and 3.2 percent French.

The ‘ winner’ however, is the German-speaking Zug, where 14.1 percent of the population over the age of 15 has English as their primary language. 

READ ALSO : Where in Switzerland is English most widely used? 

What else does the study reveal?

It shows to what extent Switzerland’s population ‘migrated’ from rural areas to cities over the past century.

While only a third of the country’s residents lived in urban regions 100 years ago, the 170 Swiss cities and their agglomerations are now home to three-quarters of the population.

As a result of this evolution, “new cities sprang up, many political and spatial boundaries were moved, and the country became increasingly urban.”

With a population of 427,000, Zurich is still the most populated city, followed by Geneva (204,000) and Basel (174,000).

And there is more: Fewer people practice religion

The proportion of people who feel they belong to a traditional religion is generally falling, FSO found.

This downward trend concerns all religions, but it is strongest among people of the Reformed Evangelical faith.

In six towns in particular — Bussigny, Crissier, and Ecublens (VD), Kloten, and Opfikon (ZH), as well as Oftringen (AR) — the drop was of more than 70 percent.
 
 READ ALSO: Why so many Swiss are quitting the church and taking their money with them

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