If you're thinking of living and working in Switzerland, one question that might arise is, "How many vacation days will I get?"" You're in luck, if you're coming from anywhere outside of Europe. Under Swiss law, all companies have to give their employees at least four weeks of paid vacation, and many give up to six weeks. Compare this to the starting vacation plans in the U.S., where new employees are lucky to get more than two weeks, and it sounds pretty good. Even crazier, people actually take all of their vacation days here. And if they want to take two weeks of vacation back to back, their employers are required to give it to them, because it takes a full two weeks to unwind from the high-stress lifestyle of working 37.5 hours per week (the standard Swiss work week; at many companies, if you work more than that, the extra hours can be banked towards extra vacation days).
On top of that, there are the Swiss national holidays. There are the ones you might expect, such as Christmas Day, New Year's Day, Labor Day, Swiss National Day, and since Switzerland is predominantly Catholic, there are the religious holidays, such as Whit Monday, the Ascension, St. Stephen's Day (the day after Christmas), and Good Friday. And then… well, there are two really peculiar holidays, both of which seem somewhat dangerous, but are big local traditions.
One is Knabenschiessen, roughly translated as "Boys' Shooting Day," recently expanded to include girls. This September celebration revolves around a shooting contest, in which 12 to 16-year olds show off their marksmanship with rifles, competing to win prizes or the overall title. I suppose this prepares them for later military service, which is compulsory for all able-bodied males, when they will all have their very own pistols and assault rifles to take home with them between training sessions.
The more bizarre tradition is Sechseläuten, which happens in April. Sechseläuten is sort of the Swiss equivalent of Groundhog Day, in that it is used to predict the end of winter. All similarity ends there. To start with, there is apparently a children's parade, in which children wearing traditional clothing are chased around by adults, who are carrying large pairs of scissors. I am not sure what the significance of this tradition might be. Afterwards, everyone gathers around the Böögg, which is a large snowman made out of cotton, stuffed with firecrackers, doused with gasoline, and perched on top of a giant pile of wood. They torch him, and the faster his head explodes, the sooner summer will come, and the nicer it will be. Forget Punxsutawney Phil checking out his shadow, we want scissor chases and exploding snowmen!!
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