Swiss National Costume Association

Swiss National Costume Association ; (STV)
purpose	Preservation of Swiss national costumes
Chair:	Roland Meyer-Imboden, Birmenstorf
Establishment date:	1926
Number of members:	19,667 ( 2009 )
Seat :	Bubikon ZH
Website:	http://www.trachtenvereinigung.ch

The Swiss Trachtenvereinigung (STV) is the central association of traditional costume clubs in Switzerland . His main concern is to pass on folk cultural values and traditions.

Beginnings

Röseligartenchor Lucerne

Trachtenhof in the "Landidörfli"

The traditional costumes were noticed by the general public in 1896 through the traditional costume festival of the Hottingen reading circle and the costume parades for the opening of the Landesmuseum Zürich in 1898 and for the Calven celebration in 1899. The Swiss Homeland Security , founded in 1905, began to deal with the question of traditional costumes and folk songs in the 1920s. Traditional costume subjects appeared at the Unspunnen parade of 1905 and the costume parade of the Badenfahrt in 1923. The centers of the young costume movement were Lucerne (Röseligartenchor 1917–1926), Baden (first costume center) and Olten (where the Rathskeller was seated).

On June 5, 1926, the traditional costume association was founded in Lucerne as the successor to the traditional costume and folk song commission formed by the Swiss Heritage Protection . Hans Vonlaufen-Rössiger from Lucerne was elected as the first President and Mary Widmer-Curtat was elected as Vice President (1927 to 1931) . In 1916 she founded the Association pour le Costume Vaudois, the first Swiss costume association.

In 1931 Ernst Laur , managing director and director of the Swiss Farmers' Association and the Swiss Homeland Security, became the new president. The farmers' association helped spread the idea of traditional costumes among the rural population. The traditional costume association changed from an urban-liberal to a more rural-conservative, broad movement and reached its first, identity-creating climax with the traditional costume festival on the Landi in 1939 .

today

The traditional costume association consists of 700 local groups, which are divided into 26 cantonal associations. The central board is responsible for five specialist commissions for folk dance, costume and materials, child and youth work, and the publication of the quarterly association magazine “Tracht und Custom”.

June 6th, the day the STV was founded, was declared the “Day of Traditional Costume” in the 75th anniversary year. The STV has been holding a Swiss traditional choir meeting since 2001, which also serves to promote young singers.

The STV is a member of two global folk culture organizations that have UNESCO status under the title of World Heritage .

Federal Costume Festival 2010

Every twelve years the STV holds a national costume meeting as a federal festival . The last time around 8,000 people in traditional costumes met at the Swiss National Costume Festival 2010 (June 4 to 6, 2010) at the invitation of the Cantonal Schwyzerische Trachtenvereinigung in Schwyz . The festival counted 70,000 visitors. The large gap between the Swiss national costume festivals can be explained by the fact that the traditional costume and alpine shepherd festivals in Interlaken (Unspunnenfest) are of comparable importance to the Swiss National Costume Association as the Swiss national costume festivals. The Unspunnen Festival also takes place every 12 years (the Unspunnen Festival 2005 had to be postponed for a year at short notice after the severe weather disaster in the Bernese Oberland). September 2017.

Folk dance evening at the Federal Costume Festival

Yodel choir at the Swiss National Costume Festival 2010

Federal costume festivals

year	venue
1931	Geneva
1934	Montreux
1939	Zurich , Swiss National Exhibition 1939
1951	Lucerne
1955	Interlaken , Unspunnen Festival
1961	Basel
1964	Lausanne , National Exhibition Expo 64
1968	Interlaken, Unspunnen Festival
1974	Zurich
1978	Lucerne
1981	Interlaken, Unspunnen Festival
1986	Geneva
1993	Interlaken, Unspunnen Festival
1998	Bern
2006	Interlaken, Unspunnen Festival
2010	Schwyz