Switzerland (Luzern) : public and bank holidays, closure of banks, stock exchanges, school vacations

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Culture : Auffahrtsumritt Beromünster - Riding procession of the Ascension in Beromünster

Catholic or protestant : Forty days after Easter, always on a Thursday. After his resurrection, Jesus appeared before his disciples and gathered them to tell them to baptize and spread the good word. He then ascended to heaven on a cloud.

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Catholic or protestant : Not a paid holiday

Catholic or protestant : Seven weeks after Easter Monday -Marking the day the Holy Spirit entered the disciples left behind and the beginning of their ministry.

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Catholic : Commemorates the Last supper. Pope Urban IV ordered the observance of such a feast in 1264, and in the following century it became universal in the Western Church. For six hundred years that feast was observed on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday, but in 1970 the new Roman Missal, while retaining that day for some countries, provided that in others the feast be observed on the Sunday after Trinity.

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Secular holiday : Instaured at the end of the XIX century. The date refers to an agreement made at the beginning of August 1291 between Uri, Schwyz and Nidwalden. Traditional observance includes bonfires on the the mountains and celebrations in the communities, occasions for patriotic speeches. Modern observance, fostered by the Tourist offices, include fireworks.

Catholic : The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is the dogma so far defined by the Church. The definition was made by Pope Pius XII on 1st November 1950. The Pope proclaimed: We pronounce, declare and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.

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Catholic or protestant : Saint Leodegar or Leger, Bishop of Autun (c. 615 – Sarcing, Somme October 2, 679), was the great opponent of Ebroin— the mayor of the Palace of Neustria— and the leader of the faction of Austrasian great nobles in the struggles for hegemony over the waning Merovingian dynasty. His torture and death made him a martyr and saint of the Roman Catholic Church, which embraced the cause of the Austrasian mayors of the palace, the Arnulfings, in the following century, anointed as the Carolingian dynasty. Wikipedia

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Catholic or protestant : The day now honors all saints of the church, even those not known by name. The first All Saints' Day occurred on May 13, 609 (C.E.) when Pope Boniface IV accepted the Pantheon as a gift from the Emperor Phocas. Boniface dedicated it as the Church of Santa Maria Rotonda in honor of the Blessed Virgin and all martyrs. During Pope Gregory III's reign (731-741), the festival was expanded to include all saints and a chapel in St. Peter's church was dedicated accordingly. Pope Gregory IV officially designated the day in 837.

Culture : The small town of Sursee upholds a custom, which is unique in Switzerland. Participants of all ages try to cut down a suspended dead goose with one single sabre cut, while blindfolded. www.luzern.com