Where Berchtold Day Begins: 2 January in Lausanne
It is the second morning of January, and Lausanne is still dressed for Christmas. In the old town, strings of lights hang over the steep lanes between Place de la Palud and the cathedral, and the air on the terraces above Lake Geneva carries the smell of roasted chestnuts and mulled wine from the stalls that have been standing since Advent. The trams run on a holiday timetable. Shutters stay down longer than usual. And then, through the middle of the quiet, you hear it: the sound of a city that has decided to keep celebrating. This is Berchtold Day, 2 January — a public holiday in the canton of Vaud, and in Lausanne, its capital, a day that belongs to walking, eating and being out of doors.
What Berchtold Day Actually Is — and Why Lausanne Keeps It
Berchtold Day falls every year on 2 January. In 2027 that is a Saturday, which means the holiday lands on a weekend and the city's Christmas-season programming runs straight into it without a working-day interruption. It is a public holiday in eleven Swiss cantons, among them Vaud, and it has been observed in some form since at least the fourteenth century — recorded across parts of Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Alsace.
The name is a puzzle with several solutions, and no one quite agrees. There was never a Saint Berchtold. One proposal traces it to an old Alemannic word meaning "to walk about begging for food"; another points to Duke Berchtold V and the founding of Bern in the twelfth century; a third to Perchta, the half-human, half-beast folkloric guardian of the animals. The most persuasive explanation is linguistic: an old High German equivalent of Epiphany, the feast on the twelfth day of Christmas. When the Swiss Reformation turned Protestant cantons against Epiphany, the celebration shifted to 2 January — a replacement holiday for a lost one. What survives in Lausanne is the part that never needed a doctrine: a day off in the middle of winter, taken outdoors.
Spend the Morning on Foot in the Old Town
The centre of Lausanne is built on a hill, and the fastest way to understand the city is to climb it. Start at Place de la Palud, where the Christmas market stalls occupy the square through the festive season, and work your way up through the pedestrian lanes toward the cathedral. On 2 January the streets are quiet in a way they never are in summer — this is the pleasure of the day. You will have the viewpoints largely to yourself.
- Place de la Palud — the historic lower square, the natural starting point for the climb, and the site of the seasonal market.
- The cathedral terrace — the highest point of the old town, looking south over the lake toward the Savoy Alps. In early January the air is at its clearest.
- The Escaliers du Marché — the covered wooden stairway linking the lower and upper town, and the most atmospheric route up.
- Lakeside terraces at Ouchy — walk down, or take the metro, and finish at the water. The lakefront promenade is where Lausanne comes to breathe.
Eat and Drink Your Way Through the Holiday
Berchtold Day falls in the middle of the Christmas season, and Lausanne eats accordingly. The market stalls around Place de la Palud and the old town sell the standard Swiss winter repertoire: roasted chestnuts, mulled wine, and the fondue and raclette that carry the canton through January. Book a table if you want fondue in a restaurant rather than from a stall — the weekend date in 2027 means locals will be out too. This is also the tail end of the season for merveilles, the fried dough pastries that appear in Vaud kitchens and bakeries around the New Year, and for the Christmas biscuits — bruns, zimtsterne and the rest — that fill the confectioners' windows well into the first week of January.
What the City Does — and How to Time Your Visit
Lausanne observes Berchtold Day as a public holiday rather than with a single fixed programme, so the reliable move is to plan around the season rather than a specific ticketed event. The Christmas market and its stalls in the old town run through the festive period; the lights stay up; the lakefront and the old town are open to anyone on foot. Because 2 January 2027 is a Saturday, you get a full weekend: the holiday itself, plus the ordinary Sunday that follows, with the city still in holiday mode.
- Check the canton and city listings before you travel — Vaud's official holiday calendar confirms 2 January as a public holiday, and Lausanne's tourism office publishes what is open and running over the New Year period.
- Plan for closures — as a public holiday, some shops and businesses shut. Museums and restaurants vary; confirm opening hours for the day itself.
- Build in the walk — the old town to Ouchy route, via the Escaliers du Marché and the cathedral terrace, is the day's real event and costs nothing.
Make a Weekend of It
With the holiday on a Saturday in 2027, Lausanne rewards a longer stay. Use the Friday to see the Christmas market at its fullest, keep the Saturday for the old town and the lake, and take the Sunday slowly along the waterfront at Ouchy. From the city you can also reach the Lavaux vineyards along the lake — a UNESCO-listed terraced landscape that is stark and beautiful in winter, and a short train ride from Lausanne's station. It is a quiet season for the vineyards, but the terraces and the views over Lake Geneva do not need a harvest to be worth the trip.
Berchtold Day is not a spectacle with a programme you buy a ticket for. It is a day the city takes off, in the middle of winter, in one of the most walkable and best-fed corners of Switzerland. Book your travel for the first weekend of January 2027, keep the Saturday free, and spend it climbing the old town and standing at the lake.