St. Bartholomew’s Day

Cathedral Saint-Pierre (Calvin preached here)

Geneva was a center of Protestantism and the Reformation. The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre, the slaughter of several thousand Huguenots (Protestants) in 1572 triggered a fast in Geneva the next year to remember those who were killed.

Reformation Wall*

St. Bartholomew’s Day is the first Thursday in September.  Over time, it lost its religious significance. It is now associated with eating plum tarts (yum).** Since this is Switzerland, banks, post offices, shops, restaurants and bars close. However, unlike Thanksgiving, which also falls on a Thursday, you don’t get a four-day weekend. I did some shopping to prepare yesterday. You should take the day off too. I will be.  He will be working, remotely.

The whole ten all lit up at night

* The people on the wall are Theodore Beza, John Calvin, William Farel and John Knox.  On one side are: William the Silent, Gaspard de Coligny and Frederick William of Brandenburg. On the other side are: Roger Williams, Oliver Cromwell and Stephen Bocskay.

**People were supposed to abstain from meat on a day of penitence, and plums happened to be in season.