Jan 13 2009
Getting to know Switzerland through her National Symbols
As I mentioned previously, it recently occurred to me that I had yet to officially introduce Malaysia, Switzerland and the USA, the three countries that are the foundation of this blog!
 source: MS Office clip art |
Since I didn’t want to make you wade through tons of text about history, politics, economy, and the like (you can get all that from wikipedia), I decided to use a few of the country’s national symbols to tell the tale.
Malaysia cooperated… Switzerland has proven to be more of a challenge: did you know Switzerland has neither national flower or nor animal?
 Edelweiss Originally uploaded by Mclaire2 |
But what about the edelweiss? you ask.
This noble white flower (leontopodium alpinum, lion’s paw) usually grows in high inaccessible places, and is associated with many alpine countries, not just Switzerland. For example, in The Sound of Music, the edelweiss was used as a symbol of Austria. The edelweiss is also the insignia used by Polish, German and and Austrian alpine troops.
Nevertheless, Switzerland does acknowledge the bloom as an unofficial national flower.
If you take a closer look at the flower, you’ll see a few golden puffy balls in the center - those are the actual flowers! The white “petals” are actually fur-lined leaves.
If you are fortunate enough to come across a wild edelweiss bloom while hiking in the Alps, do not pick it - it’s a protected plant! There are plenty of edelweiss farms though, where this flower is cultivated and harvested for the health and beauty industry. Edelweiss extract contains very potent antioxidants and cell protection properties as well as anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial qualities, no wonder Asterix was sent to Switzerland for this special ingredient! 
Next, let’s talk animals.
 Swiss Animal Cantons Coat-of-Arms Originally uploaded by azlynne1972 |
I had always assumed the bear was the Swiss national animal. That’s probably because I “come” from a village within the canton of Berne so I always see the bear-dominant Berne coat of arms. And aren’t there bear pits in the city of Berne itself?
I decided to take a peek at the coat of arms of all the cantons, and look closely at those that actually have an animal on it. Click on the image on the left to embiggen. You’ll see three have bears (the two Appenzells and Berne), two have some sort of ram (Grisons & Schaffhausen), Geneva has an eagle, Thurgau has two *blush!* tumescent lions, and Uri has one mean looking ring-nosed bull! (Actually, except for the eagle and bull, all the animals are undoubtedly male and, umm, “standing at attention”… is this usual in heraldry?) If nothing else, these animals are probably important at the canton level. Should I ever find out the story behind them, I’ll be sure to blog about it. Right now, I’m rather clueless myself 
source: wikipedia |
From the coat of arms, let’s zoom out to the flag itself.
The first thing you should notice is that it’s square… in fact, there are only two square sovereign-state flags in the world. Do you know the other?
As a predominantly Christian nation, the white cross has long been the symbol for Switzerland, or its predecessor. The first attested use of a white cross to identify the combined troops of the Old Swiss Confederacy occurred in the 1339 Battle of Laupen. It later appeared on the banners of all the cantonal troops: a white cross with the background being the canton’s own colors. It was only in the 1800’s that the white cross with red background was used as a symbol of the entire country.
The reverse of the flag — red cross on white background — was adopted in 1864 by the International Committee of the Red Cross to honor its founder, the Swiss native Henry Dunant.
 CH composite by azlynne1972 |
Finally, here are other items that are not so much “national symbols” as just things that immediately come to mind when one thinks of Switzerland:
- Chocolate (white Toblerone is my favorite!)
- Cheese (there are a ton of varieties, not just what the Americans call “Swiss cheese”, and no, they are not all holey!)
- Clocks & watches (Rolex, Swatch, …)
- The Alps (The Matterhorn, the Eiger, …)
- Swiss bank accounts (secret bank accounts, mind you!)
- Swiss pocket knives (also known as the Swiss Army knives, produced by Victorinox and Wenger)
Here’s a parting pop quiz for you:
Do you know why Switzerland’s 2-letter country abbreviation is CH?
Talking about CH - oh how I miss Gruyère cheese! Been here in Singapore for 6 months but I’m still searching high and low for my Gruyère cheese!!!
Because its official name is the Swiss Confederation (Confoederatio Helvetica in Latin).
I admit that I had to look that up, but it was an interesting fact I’d never questioned myself, despite living very close to Switzerland for many years!
I agree with you on Chocolate (white Toblerone is my favorite!)
Edelweiss - love the flower and the tune
Hah - look at the postage stamps n u hv the first clue ! CH is derived from Confoederatio Helvetica n the history behind it is too long to mention here
…would I be correct in assuming that a further extrapolation of this trivia would imply that the Helvetica typeface is named for having Swiss origins, one way or another?
As for the things people remember: for me, it was always the Swiss army knife. My mother carried one just about everywhere she went (aside from occasional misadventures with metal detectors), and I just loved the things; the year she gave me one felt like a real turning point for me, even if it wasn’t a real one.
Angie: Gruyère? Ah yes, that’s a good one! I’m surprised you haven’t found any in Singapore - maybe you can drop a line to the Swiss Club of S’pore and see if they can point you in the right direction
Jennifer: Yup, that’s right!
Jo: Cool, we have the same tastes
Dutchie: yup! And I am no fan of history (the scars from how it was (not) taught in school are still with me!), so I ain’t delving into it either :p
RE Ausetkmt: I am really amused by the sculpture, LMAO!! Switzerland isn’t in there, though, since she is NOT in the EU (despite being slap bang in the center!)
Ravyn: You raise a good point - I have always assumed that the font is somehow related to Switzerland too. A quick visit to wikipedia explains that “Helvetica is a widely used sans-serif typeface developed in 1957 by Swiss typeface designer Max Miedinger”. Now we know
My Bug Life: You too?
I knew the entire soundtrack pretty much by heart 
Almost all the songs were favourites.
here a complement for cheese there is a famous one and even better than gruyeres it s l’ Etivaz!
For edelweiss it s the flower protected and symbol of tourism p!
Now for EU it s the votation of swiss’people which refuse to enter in it and it s a good thing seeing the money fall of all EU’S COUNTRIES!
For CH its an old abreviation coming from latin speaking language and you can read it on and where ? Well it s my question for you
swissgirl: l’etivaz? which canton/area does that come from? … and the edelweiss yes it’s protected, and it’s used as the tourism symbol, but technically it is not the official national flower. Everyone assumes Switzerland is part of the EU - everyone who’s not European, that is, LoL! .. you’re asking where *i* would see “CH”? stamps, car license plates, coins… everywhere.