The Swiss Society of Public Utility (SSUP) is currently working on changing the national anthem and announces in a press release that “the future national anthem will be based on the text of the preamble of the Swiss Federal Constitution, in force since 1999 and which evokes values such as democracy, diversity, freedom, peace and solidarity ”. The old “Swiss Canticle” should thus pass away in 2015.
After launching a competition on August 1, the SSUP reportedly received more than 200 projects. On the competition website, the official reason for this change is as follows: “the text of the Swiss Song is difficult to remember, heavy on style and overtaken by reality. Switzerland is not reflected in its current political or cultural diversity. This must change”. But already, although the churches have not spoken out to date (Neither the Federation of Swiss Protestant Churches, nor the Romande Federation of Evangelical Churches, nor the Swiss Evangelical Network have taken a position on this subject), some Christians wonder: and if in the end, the main objective was none other than to remove all reference goodbye in the national anthem?
“This hymn is a hymn to the Glory of God. I am very firmly attached to it and I see in the proposed approach a perverse action whose objective is to participate in the evacuation of society from any reference goodbye within our country. I'm tired of seeing young people who unfortunately don't know or reject the values that made Switzerland strong, rise up to trivialize what our fathers built and annihilate any reference goodbye in our country”, gets carried away Philippe Corthay – oenologist and founder of the evangelical group “Forum des hommes” – according to a dispatch from ProtestInfo. On the same wavelength, the young people of the SVP also wanted to maintain that "the Swiss Song proclaims the beauty of our country, using a healthy patriotism and recalling the Christian roots of the Confederation". Rejecting any change, the young people of the SVP call for “preserving and teaching the Swiss Song”.
“If on the one hand I find it useful that our anthem refers goodbye (superior and last authority), I notice that the danger of confusion between the State and the Church is real. As an Anabaptist-Mennonite Christian (of peaceful tradition), I am particularly sensitive to this”, moderates for his part, Pastor Ernest Geiser (who works among federal parliamentarians). Questioned by ProtestInfo, he nevertheless wishes to warn against "a new hymn" which would relate that "simple fables" are "at the origin of the momentum of the first Confederates".
The “Swiss Canticle” is a song composed by Alberich Zwyssig in 1841 and whose lyrics are as follows:
On our mountains, when the sun
Announces a bright alarm clock,
Et prédit d'un plus beau jour le retour,
The beauties of the motherland
Speak to the tender soul;
In heaven go up happier (twice)
Les accents d'un heart pieux,
Les accents émus d'un heart pieux.
Lorsqu'un doux rayon du soir
Play again in the black wood,
The heart feels happier near God.
Far from the vain noises of the plain,
L'âme en paix est plus sereine,
In heaven go up happier (twice)
Les accents d'un heart pieux,
Les accents émus d'un heart pieux.
When in the dark night
Lightning bursts with noise,
Our hearts still press the strong God;
Dans l'orage et la détresse
He is our fortress;
Let us offer him pious hearts: (bis)
God will bless us from heaven,
God will bless us from heaven.
Large mountains come help;
Swiss, hope in god still !
Keep the faith of the ancestors, live like them!
South l'autel de la patrie
Put your goods, your heart, your life!
C'est le trésor précieux (bis)
May God bless heaven,
May God bless from heaven.
source: DieuTV
Author: Paul OHLOTT
