Swiss pride flies high over harbour bridge

Auckland Swiss Club committee member Trudi Fill-Weidmann helped to arrange today's flag-flying on the bridge. Picture / Martin Sykes

Switzerland's flag will be flown above the Auckland Harbour Bridge today to mark the national day of the proudly neutral nation.

On Saturday, about 120 Auckland Swiss Club members celebrated the day early with a traditional dinner, featuring such standard fare as sauerkraut, Swiss sausages, smoked meats and potatoes.

They also sang the national anthem and heard a taped address in German from Samuel Schmid, president of Switzerland's Federal Council (a post akin to Prime Minister), which had been sent via the Swiss Embassy in Wellington for the dinner.

Members of the Auckland yodelling group who usually perform at the annual celebration are this year in Aarau, Switzerland, for the country's national yodelling festival.

According to the last Census, more than 2750 Swiss-born people live in New Zealand.

The Swiss celebrate their national day on August 1 to mark the meeting in 1291 at which representatives of the German-speaking alpine valleys of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden swore an oath to join forces in the long and fierce fight for independence.

The Swiss flag is sometimes confused with the Red Cross flag (a red cross on a white background), which was designed to honour the homeland of Jean Henri Dunant, whose ideas led to the founding of the worldwide humanitarian agency in 1863.