The Song of Gryon: Political Ritual, Local Identity, and the Consolidation of Nationalism in Multiethnic Switzerland

Switzerland's successful multicultural nationalism is often based in local identity and practices, but few studies have examined nationalism in the nation's non-Germanic regions. This article explores the summer festival cycle in Gryon, a francophone Swiss commune, and the recontextualization of its centuries-old Midsummer pastoral festival in association with Swiss National Day and with late-twentieth-century celebrations of local identity. The festival cycle's assemblage of nationalist political ritual with local traditions illuminates the confluence between the conscious, elite social engineering of nationalist traditions and the practices of ordinary people who are themselves the objects of nationalist propaganda.