- Unspunnenfest
Unspunnenfest is a festival held in the town of
Interlaken ,Switzerland , near the old ruin ofUnspunnen Castle , in theBernese Alps , approximately once every ten years. The festival highlights traditional Swiss culture and features competitions of "Steinstossen " (stone throwing), "Schwingen " (wrestling) andyodeling .The history of the festival dates back to the 13th century, in the meadows of Unspunnen Castle, with efforts to defuse tensions between city and rural denizens, as well as government and citizens.
The first official festival was held in 1805 in a similar effort: The people of the
Bernese Oberland had formed a separate canton in theHelvetic Republic , leading the Mayor ofBern ,Niklaus Friedrich von Mülinen and Interlaken's chiefmagistrate ,Franz Ludwig Thormann (and others) to organize this festival in an effort to bring both sides together. It was, unfortunately, not very successful in that regard. Culturally and financially, however, the first two festivals were a great success. TheSwiss Heritage Society and theSwiss Traditional Costume Association owe their origins to the Unspunnen Festival.However, it wasn't until 1946 that the festival, then known as the Swiss Traditional Costume and Cowherd's Festival, was held at regular intervals. After 1946, the Unspunnen Festival was staged at regular intervals: 1955, 1968, 1981 and 1993.
The latest Unspunnenfest was held in September 2006. It was originally to have been held one year earlier, but excessive flooding caused the postponement of the festival. Additionally, the "
Unspunnenstein " (the 167-lb / 80 kg stone that is the festival's centerpiece and the object of the stone-throwing competition) was stolen by Swiss-French separatists from thecanton of Jura . The same separatist group had previously stolen the stone in 1984 (it was not recovered until 2000). The organizers had been planning to use a replica for the competition. [ [http://www.drinkatwork.com/2005/08/type-of-madness-that-can-only-come.html Reuters article] (reprinted onDrink at Work )]References
External links
* [http://www.unspunnenfest.ch/home.0.html?&L=1 Unspunnenfest web site]
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