September 25 – Feast Day of Niklaus von Flüe in Switzerland

nPostednon September 25, 2016

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Didnyou know that the “patron saint” of Switzerland is Saint Nicholasnof Flüe,nalso known as Brother Klaus?

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nWait!n– Saint Nicholas? Saint Klaus?

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nDon’tnget excited – Santa Claus / Saint Nick / Sinterklaas is SaintnNicholas of Myra. Basically the same name, but from a different place. Thus, a different guy. n

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nThenoriginal Nicholas of Flüe was a farmer / military leader /ngovernment official until he had a vision and became a hermit andnmystic. He lived in Switzerland in the 1400s, and his wisdom isnconsidered to have prevented a war between the various Swiss cantons.nn

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nInread that Brother Klaus was the son of “wealthy peasants,” anconcept I found interesting. Somehow, the word peasantnalways makes me think of people who live in the country and are quitenpoor. But I guess if your station in life is “peasant,” but younwork so hard and so efficiently that you are able to grow more crops,nraise more cows, or whatever – you could end up growing rich?

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nHere’s an oddity: Nicholas of Flüe’s Feast Day is March 21neverywhere but in Germany and Switzerland – and in those twonnations, his Feast Day is today, September 25.

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nCoolnthings about Switzerland

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nYounprobably know that Switzerland is a beautiful nation in Europe, withnplenty of mountains (Alps), streams, waterfalls, and lakes, but nonaccess to an ocean or sea. It’s landlocked – but what a beautifulnchunk of land to be “locked” in!

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Thenpeople of Switzerland have a strong national identity and sharednvalues – which is very cool but almost surprising, since they speaknfour different official languages: German, French, Italian, andnRomansh. Since there is so much linguistic diversity, Swiss coins andnstamps use the Latin name, Helvetia, for the nation rather than one of thenliving official languages.

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nYounsee, Switzerlandnis the English name for the country. Its other names include:

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nSchweizn– German

nSuissen– French

nSvizzeran– Italian

nSvizran– Romansh

nHelvetian– Latin

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nAndnthe country is also known as ConfoederationHelvetica,nwith the abbreviationnCH. In international tables, Swiss francs are listed as CHF.

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nInterestinglynenough, Switzerland is not part of the EU, and it continues to usenits traditional Swiss franc rather than the euro. But Switzerland isna highly developed nation, a wealthy nation, a nation of banks. Whennwe were there way back in the 1990s, we could use dollars from thenU.S., lira from Italy, pounds from England, whatever! And we couldneven use credit cards with street vendors and small purchases –nsomething that is pretty common here in the U.S. nowadays but wasnvery unusual back then. I thought it was smart that it had madenitself the easiest country in which to spend money – because peoplenare more apt to spend where they CAN spend, right?

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Switzerlandnhas much more direct democracy than most democracies, becausencitizens can challenge any law passed by their parliament. They havento collect 50,000 signatures against the law within 100 days of thenlaw’s passage – and if they do so, it becomes a referendum. Votersndecide by a simple majority whether or not to accept the law.

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ThenSwiss are not only wealthy compared to others in the world, they arenlonger lived than most and happier than most. Most years, they comenout as #1 or 2 in most rankings (longest life expectancy, safestncountry, happiest country, best country to live in, etc.).