Sports holiday (end)
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Monday March 13, 2023
School holidays : one or two weeks later in Oberwallis (Haut-Valais)
St Joseph's Day
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Sunday March 19, 2023
Catholic or protestant :
Spring holiday (beginning)
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Thursday April 6, 2023
School holidays : In Romand only
Good Friday
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Friday April 7, 2023
Catholic or protestant : The First Council of Nicaea (a gathering of bishops in the early days of Christianity) wanted to find a day to commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ.
This commemoration had to be linked to Jewish holiday traditions, since the last supper of Christ was believed to be a Jewish Passover meal. But the Jewish calendar is based on lunar and solar cycles, so the Easter celebration had to follow the same calendar.
Customary holiday
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Monday April 10, 2023
Catholic or protestant : Easter Monday
Spring holiday (end)
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Monday April 17, 2023
School holidays : In Romand only
Mid-term holiday (beginning)
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Friday May 12, 2023
School holidays : in Oberwallis (Haut-Valais) only
Ascension
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Thursday May 18, 2023
Catholic or protestant : Forty days after Easter, always on a Thursday. After his resurrection, Jesus appeared before his disciples and gathered them to tell them to baptize and spread the good word. He then ascended to heaven on a cloud.
Mid-term holiday (end)
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Monday May 22, 2023
School holidays : in Oberwallis (Haut-Valais) only
Pentecost
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Sunday May 28, 2023
Catholic or protestant : Not a paid holiday
Whit Monday
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Monday May 29, 2023
Catholic or protestant : Seven weeks after Easter Monday -Marking the day the Holy Spirit entered the disciples left behind and the beginning of their ministry.
Corpus Cristi
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Thursday June 8, 2023
Catholic : Commemorates the Last supper. Pope Urban IV ordered the observance of such a feast in 1264, and in the following century it became universal in the Western Church.
For six hundred years that feast was observed on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, but in 1970 the new Roman Missal, while retaining that day for some countries, provided that in others the feast be observed on the Sunday after Trinity.
Tour de Suisse
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Sunday June 11, 2023
Sports events : Lasts 1 week - www.tourdesuisse.ch/ 2023 edition confirmed
Summer holiday (beginning)
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Friday June 30, 2023
School holidays : On week later in Oberwallis (Haut-Valais)
Zermatt Marathon
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Saturday July 1, 2023
Sports events : Www.zermattmarathon.ch/ 2023 edition confirmed
Confederation Day
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Tuesday August 1, 2023
Secular holiday : Instaured at the end of the XIX century. The date refers to an agreement made at the beginning of August 1291 between Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden. Traditional observance includes bonfires on the the mountains and celebrations in the communities, occasions for patriotic speeches. Modern observance, fostered by the Tourist offices, include fireworks.
Summer holiday (end)
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Tuesday August 15, 2023
School holidays :
Assumption
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Tuesday August 15, 2023
Catholic : The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is the dogma so far defined by the Church. The definition was made by Pope Pius XII on 1st November 1950. The Pope proclaimed: We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.
Jungfrau Marathon
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Sunday September 10, 2023
Sports events : Www.jungfrau-marathon.ch/ 2023 edition confirmed