No Feasting, but Fasting: The Swiss Federal Fasting Day

A sign announcing the closure of one of my local grocery stores for the Swiss Federal Fasting Day. Lausanne, Switzerland. September 2023.

Each year, friends and family in the United States ask me if Switzerland has a holiday during the year like the U.S.A.’s Thanksgiving: A big-feasty-holiday encompassing a long weekend during which friends and family get together, eat themselves into oblivion, watch television, and relax.

Nah, not so much.

But!

The Swiss do have the opposite: A day of fasting.

The Swiss Day of Fasting

Yep, each year on the third Sunday of September, the Swiss celebrate their “Thanksgiving”—for which they’re supposed to fast.

Pretty much everything closes for the holiday—including, as you can see in the photo (and, frankly, logically) the grocery stores. In some parts of Switzerland, because the day falls on a Sunday, the Monday is a holiday as well, which gives people in these regions a three-day weekend.

The Origins of the Swiss Day of Fasting

Where does this come from?

The Middle Ages, originally, though on a regional basis. Each canton, or “state,” of Switzerland had different fasting days at different times and for different reasons. At the time, the days of fasting tied mostly to days of religious thanksgiving or penitence.

The federal-level day of fasting, officially decreed by the Swiss government, kicked off in 1831. The government named a specific day each year for the fasting for all regions—the third Sunday in September—though the region of Geneva has kept a separate date for the fast and the region of Grisons had its own date as well until 1848.

Though the original fasting days tied to religious penitence or thanksgiving, the fasting days evolved in difficult times to serve community or nation-wide needs not specifically religious in nature, including to conserve resources due to hardships, such as plagues and famines.

Eat A Piece of Prune Tart, Why Don’t You?

Though we’ve lost the origins of the tradition, and despite the definition of “fasting,” some parts of Switzerland honor the holiday by eating a slice of prune tart at midday.

However, in truth, fasting on the actual day of fasting isn’t something that pretty much anyone I know in Switzerland does these days. In fact, other than in the very few cantons that get a day off on the Monday after the holiday, the federal holiday doesn’t even give most people a day off work.

I haven’t yet tried the prune tart, but maybe for next year’s federal fasting day, I’ll give it a go.

Though I’m still not going to be fasting!