Yodel-Ay-Hee-Ho and fly a flag this Swiss Day… or better still make a sport of it.
After all every country in the world is waving or wrapping themselves in theirs just now at the Olympics in Paris.
All of which is a treat for vexillophiles everywhere.
So with all that drapery fluttering around why not put it to good use and turn it into an event?
With a swish of the flag
After all, the Swiss, who fly one of the oldest in the world, dating to 1339 and the battle of Laupen in the canton of Bern in 1339 do.
When they adopted it on their chain mail to distinguish themselves from the other participants on the battlefield.
Like all of us the Swiss are rightly proud of their flag which, with the Vatican State‘s, is the only square flag on the world.
So much so that the right to fly a flag was a privilege reserved for the urban guilds from the Middle Ages onwards.
Now, of course, any Tom, Dick or Harald flies theirs whether at a sporting event, political rally or from their back garden.
And I’m watching you out of my window, Royalist Roy!
Now you can judge for yourself how well the athletes at the Olympics wave theirs.
But, in truth, if there was a gold medal for flag flying then the Swiss would surely be champions.
Because since the turn of the century 1910, the Swiss Yodeling Association have taken it under their wing.
Catch the wave
Now with a swish, let’s begin.
Flag throwing involves swinging a 120 x 120cm silk flag back and forth on a short staff.
And then throwing it into the air and catching it by the staff as it falls.
Now if you thought that waving a flag was just swishing it from left to right then you would, of course, be oversimplifying the whole art.
There are, of course, more than 90 regulated swings.
As well as the two grips there are body swings, plate swings, medium-high swings, leg and body combinations and passes for duets.
All to the accompaniment of alphorn music.
Fly the flag
Now, I’m not sure if a cocktail Swiss flag counts for the competition… well, looking above it clearly doesn’t.
But I will wave mine in honour of my Swiss amis today for Swiss National Day and the significant moment.
When in 1291 the Swiss Federal Charter was signed by the three founding cantons of Uri, Schwyz and Unterwalden.
As they agreed to ‘stand together against outside judges and aggressors.’
All of which is good reason to let out a Yodel-Ay-Hee-Ho and fly a flag this Swiss Day and word up to my old amie from Iterlaken, Brigitte, I have been practising.
As a postscript and whisper it today as it’s the Swiss day so get on board Swiss and fly yourself out there.
But us Scots have the oldest national flag in Europe dating back to the 9th century.
And it’s a national shame that we don’t make more of it than just an exhibition in a dovecot near where we live now, in Athelstaneford, East Lothian.
