Janet often explains that in the US, there is an official separation of church and state, but religion is very much part of national and political discourse, whereas in Switzerland there are three state churches and plenty of religious holidays, but religion is hardly part of public life. With that background it’s hardly surprising that our national holiday wasn’t made a national day off from work until 1994, but only later in the evening, on our way home from my parents’ house and a good meal together, was I reminded of our national anthem and of how it illustrates Janet’s point as well. The Swiss anthem speaks of God almost as much as of Switzerland, whereas the US anthem speaks of the flag. (We discovered this waiting for the train, as we ultimately successfully tried reconstituting our respective anthems – I contributed a critical “o’er” to the Star-Spangled Banner.) Here are a few links related to the Swiss anthem:
The lyrics of the Swiss national anthem in German and English
A brief history of the Swiss national anthem
You’ll learn that it took twenty years to go from provisional to official national anthem, even though the previous one was likely to make the casual observer think the Brits won the olympic bobsled.
Very interesting! I remember more than on occasion on which there was a serious movement to make America the Beautiful the national anthem, but perhaps these days there’s no chance, since its lyrics are much more about God.
I do wish we sang more than just the first verse of The Star-Spangled Banner. I love this one; the second line always moves me:
Oh! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust.”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!