Ban day
The ban day is a custom in many communities in the Swiss canton of Basel-Landschaft , the Zürcher Unterland, especially in the Furttal , and also in the Solothurn Schwarzbubenland .
On Ascension Day or another specific day in May, the citizens (for a long time only men were allowed to take part) of a community divided into rotten parts of the community boundary. Acoustically, these are accompanied by the sounds of drums and whistles as well as the cracking of muzzle-loaders and guide pistols . Originally it was a civic duty to carry out a border inspection, i. H. to regularly check that the boundary stones have not been deliberately moved by the neighbors. At the same time (until the Reformation) the village pastor gave a floor blessing. With the introduction of modern surveying , this custom lost its importance and was lost in some places. In the second half of the 20th century, it was rediscovered in many communities and mostly transformed into a folk and family festival.
The most primitive form of the ban day can be found in Liestal , the only municipality in which the ban day is a public holiday, and one of the few communities in which there is still shooting on the ban day; Participation in Liestal is reserved for men. Also in Sissach , on the Saturday before the ascent, the ban day takes place without women, but with a lot of "bawling"!