Click lurid, depraved, debauched image to enlarge.
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PatFromCH said...
Today is also the 72th birthday of my country of birth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0Wgto7__-c
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4v7FLLxnHks
I like the old one much better
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deEFNbWQKtQ
if it is still August 1st in your part of the world then hit google.ch to see a Swiss Gogle Doodle
Peace and love to all, whoever and wherever you are !
Monday, 01 August, 2011
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Happy
* Schweizer Bundesfeier!
* Fête nationale Suisse!
* Festa nazionale svizzera!
* Fiasta naziunala Svizra!
* Schweizer Bundesfeier!
* Fête nationale Suisse!
* Festa nazionale svizzera!
* Fiasta naziunala Svizra!
So what happened in 1939? What was Switzerland before 1939? I thought Switzerland was Switzerland since Gessler (hiss! boo!) ordered William Tell to shoot the arrow off his kid's head.
Wow, "Rufst du mein Vaterland" is amazing -- musicians can learn the tune, and play it for the British and every Commonwealth country ("God Save the Queen/King") and Americans ("My Country 'Tis of Thee" -- not our anthem, but No. 2 on our Patriotic chart).
I assume both national hymns have lyrics in deutsches, francais, italiano and romansch.
The fancy-schmancy women's college (Smith College) a mile from my old house has a fancy-schmancy automated carillon that's always playing pretty bell music over Northampton. One Sunday somebody plugged in a lovely old hymn by Haydn, "Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken, Zion, City of Our God," to serenade the town.
Unfortunately, a few centuries after Haydn extolled Zion's virtues, the Nazis expropriated the tune for "Deutschland über Alles," a tune which American military veterans of World War II, and American Jews, do not enjoy very much on the Public Juke Box. Obviously the hymn was plugged into the carillon by some 24-year-old music academy graduate who was clueless about its subsequent identity.
The very same thing happened around that time -- maybe 12 years ago -- from the much louder and holier carillon of the Riverside Church in New York City -- America's most prestigious and high-class Protestant church. Some 20-something idiot just didn't know the lovely old hymn also had other lyrics. The church telephones melted with thousands of complaints, and it made a really swell Page 1 New York Times article.
* * *
Well, anyway, just like Ramadan snuck up on me, so did Schweizer Bundesfeier, so I am embarrassingly unprepared.
HOWEVER ... I have had this beautiful old image on my hard disk for about a year, just waiting for the proper moment to display it. Ipse Dixit, but obviously it celebrates the exact moment when CH banned Satan's apéritif. Hope you enjoy it! Make a t-shirt out of it!
Also, the detailed symbolism in the poster must have far more meaning to you than to moi, so PLEASE educate Vleeptron on the historical background of the symbols. The weird old toothless murderer -- is he a famous iconic figure to the Suisse?
(Hmmm ... I think *I* will make a new t-shirt out of it.)
2 comments:
Thanks for liking our old national anthem ! me dad claims he can still sing it by heart and there will come one august 1st when I will see him do just that.
Before 1939 ? Nobody knows. This country just popped into existence, fully formed. With chocolate and watch factories and all, handmade cuckoo clocks as well. Hey, I like this intelligent designt thingy !
Now for what passed as a cartoon 100 years ago. Absinth was prohibited in 1910 by federal law. Messieurs, c'est l'heure means something like, Gentlemen, it is (about) time but can also mean the call for Last Orders at the pub before closing time.
The 3 blokes in the left represent the 3 Cantons which initially founded the swiss federation, on the right you can see Helvetia, normally present on all of our coins and a symbol of our country, soundly asleep and not paying attention to what is going on while the gravedigger with the Blue Cross (christian anti-alcoholics) basically killed the Green Fairy. Note the green head and rotting teeth. The caption below the body means End of individual freedom. So you can now guess at what the cartoonist was driving at. Turns out the War against alcohol is about as useless as the War Against Drugs. Then and Now.
This will not really work, I suppose this way.
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