Swiss Days in Santa Clara
I was excited to learn about the Swiss Days Celebrations going on in Santa Clara the end of September. Unfortunately Chris was out of town working in Colorado Springs, but I put in on the calendar and invited the boys to join me on Saturday morning. We parked at Snow Canyon High school and then shuttled over to Santa Clara’s main street. It was so fun to see it all decorated with red and white Swiss Flags.
The boys bought a pancake breakfast and we ate for awhile and then walked around and got ready for the parade.
The parade was fun. The cutest part was seeing the little kids dressed in traditional Swiss clothing waving their flags. After their part of the parade was over they came to be by their parents, who were near us and waited to collect candy. Luke and Matt were sweet and watched out for them and gave them most of what they collected. Their mom was so grateful and came up to me to explain what was going on and express appreciation. It was cute.
It was fun to walk through the town hall and find pictures of the founders of Santa Clara. Several of my ancestors settled here after coming across from Switzerland… Samuel Wittwer and his parents Christian Wittwer and Magadalena Pfisher and Jacob Tober and Anna Barbara Staheli. It was fun to see maps of homes and plaques and pictures all throughout the town.
Behind the booths and shops was a tent for each of the founding families. I headed straight for the Wittwer Tent and soon found this poster of who I come through. I knew I came through Bertha Barbara Tobler and found my grandmothers name under Lydia Willamina Wittwer and Hector Bunker. It was fun to talk with others in the tent and see who they came through and how we might be related. I enjoyed looking up pictures of their home in Switzerland - outside of Bern and commented to Matt that this year we are celebrating Swiss Days in Santa Clara and next year we’ll celebrate Swiss Days in Switzerland. Very cool.
On our way back to our van we stopped at the Santa Clara Swiss Days Car Show. So many cool cars to walk around and see. The boys kept picking out new favorite ones every couple steps. They especially liked the one that they could get inside and pretend to drive. So fun.
