The Assumption of the Virgin, on 15 August, is a public holiday throughout most of Spain. In some regions, it is one of the most widely observed holidays of the year: shops are closed, families get together, there’s Mass, and in the afternoon people head to the swimming pool or the beach. For anyone who grew up there, it is one of those days that simply ‘is’ on the calendar, without question. An August tradition as certain as the heat.
In Switzerland, the Feast of the Assumption is a public holiday, but only in certain Catholic cantons: Valais, Fribourg, Appenzell Innerrhoden, Schwyz, Uri, Nidwalden, Obwalden and Ticino. In the cantons of Zurich, Vaud, Geneva, Aargau, Bern and Basel, 15 August is a working day. Businesses are open, colleagues go to work, and so do the supermarkets. If you started a new job in Zurich that year, nobody will tell you anything. There’s nothing to tell you.
The first time a Spaniard in Switzerland spends 15 August at work, it creates a feeling that’s hard to describe. It’s not exactly nostalgia. It’s more a realisation that the calendar you’ve known all your life no longer applies, that the public holidays you learnt about as a child don’t follow you when you move to another country. The Swiss in the canton of Zurich work that day just like any other Wednesday in August. You know that back in your village, they’re having a festival.
This year, the 15th falls on a Saturday, so it doesn’t make any difference at work. But if you’ve been in Switzerland for a while, you probably remember perfectly well the first year it wasn’t a public holiday. Those little discrepancies in the calendar are the sort of things nobody explains to you before you arrive.