Landsgemeinde

Welcome to the town of Appenzell - home of the annual Landsgemeinde event, a true demonstration of democracy.
So, Switzerland is a small country with a fantastic railway system, so it shocked me to find out that it takes 4 hours to get from Neuch to Appenzell by the good 'ole SBB. I guess it's not really a direct way to get there, and also there's mountains and hills to go around and stuff.
Anyway, Appenzell really is a quaint Swiss town. Chalet-like houses dot the rolling green hillsides in the distance. Further on looms large, mostly, snow-peaked mountains. There is a pedestrian main street, a big church, town hall and open square. Exactly what you would imagine from a European town.
There were a lot of people, from locals to tourists. They say that there are ~3000 locals who are there, and considering that the locals are all confined in a little square there were a LOT of other people there watching the festivities.
The events started by a parade with bands and important political types wearing capes and costumes all heading towards the Landsgemeinde square. Once there, the locals who hadn't been
corralled into the square yet could show their sword/pink slip to the guards who would let them into the area.
It used to be that you needs a sword to vote. Only men had swords and now, although you don't need one, many still carried them, I guess for tradition sake. Many people were dressed up for the event. Suit and tie, nice dresses...but some were wearing jeans and t-shirt. I think it was only in 1992 that women were allowed to vote. That surprised me...I would have thought that they were able to vote much earlier than that.

Once all of the important people were on stage, after an opening speech the different topics on the agenda were voted on. Since I don't understand Swiss-German (and I thought I'd learned a lot skating in Burgdorf - I guess skating terms don't come in handy at a political election) I had no idea what they were voting on. The only thing that I got from the whole thing is that something that sounds like "hippidy hop" mean "vote" or "put you hand up" or something of the sort.
Some of the people on stage are to count or estimate the numbers for each side. Most of the time, it was pretty obvious what the citizens wanted. A clear cut winner.

Okay, so am I supposed to believe that the people on stage could see the vote of the lady in the back row?





I guess she gave up. Figured no one cared about her opinion anyway. How sad. Just kidding. Maybe she actually wanted to vote against everyone else. I don't remember.





Anyone dare put their hand up on this issue? Guess not.




Word on the street was that if there's a tie vote, everyone had to leave the square area and then file in one at a time so that they would be individually counted. I could see that being really tedious and taking a long time, but I wanted to see it happen just once to, well, say that I'd seen it. One topic was voted on four times, because it was so close. In the end, they said that it wasn't close enough to need to count, but I have no idea which side won it. That kind of sucked.
Anyway, I have no idea what passed and what didn't, but it was an experience. Something that you wouldn't see anywhere else (that I know of). At one point the citizens were asked if they had any suggestions about the topics and a couple of people yelled out that they did, but I never saw anyone different take the microphone. Perhaps they were supposed to go to the City Hall on their own time to give their suggestions. Apparently, there was a time period before the Landsgemeinde (like a month or so) that citizens could go to the government to give suggestions/topics to be voted on.
Partly due to the touristic nature of the day, some of the vendors were wearing traditional Appenzeller attire. You know, the leiderhosen and the suspender type of things (the technical English word for them escapes me right now - I'm having more trouble translating from French to English. Like, I know in my head what a French word means, but I don't know what the word is in English. I think it's a good sign. That I'm actually truly understanding French.). In Appenzell, it is typical for men to have their right ear pierced. You can see the traditional earring. Many men have a stud in the shape of a cow. This area is also famous for its cheese.
I like this picture:
Appenzell was a beautiful town, and I'm glad I had the chance to see yet another part of Switzerland and of course a Swiss tradition that I wouldn't otherwise have the chance to experience.