Berthold Day (Bern City Day) in Switzerland (02/01)

The day after the New Year's holiday in Switzerland — is Berchtoldstag Day or St. Berthold's Day, which is celebrated in honor of Duke Berthold V, who is considered the founder of the city of Bern —, now the capital of the country.

Bern was founded in 1191 by order of Duke Berthold the Fifth of Zähringer (Berchtold V), ruler of Burgundy.

The city was founded on the banks of the Aare River in order to protect the western border of the duke's possessions. Berthold announced to everyone that the new settlement would receive the name of the first animal he would shoot. Amazingly, the capital of Switzerland could easily now bear the name of quail or roe deer. However, the Duke killed the bear. The city received the name Bern from the German ber — bear.

The bear soon became an invariable image on the coats of arms and a symbol of the city, and local residents were constantly compared to bears: they say that these Bernese are the same lumps as their symbol. However, the Bernese themselves believe that this is out of envy: their canton was once the largest and strongest in the confederation.

Despite the fact that the holiday (which, by the way, dates back to the 14th century) is established in honor of the founding of the capital of the country, this day is an official holiday in many cantons of Switzerland, to which various ceremonial and entertainment events are timed — these are concerts, parades, folk festivities...

In recent years, this holiday has increasingly become a children's holiday — children gather and play various outdoor games, and also take out acorns and nuts for play, collected in the fall and saved for this day.

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