Last year was our first year in Switzerland. Christmas fell on a Sunday. Everything closed early on Saturday (Christmas Eve) and everything was closed on Monday, but I assumed that they were just giving people an alternate day off. This year, Christmas fell on Monday, and everything was closed on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. Hmm. It turns out that some parts of Switzerland, including Zürich, celebrate Saint Stephen's Day (Stephanstag) on the day after Christmas. It's a bit odd for a Protestant Canton to be celebrating a saint's day, but Saint Stephen was a bit of an odd saint. I suspect that it's celebrated more as an extension to Christmas than as its own holiday, but a day off is a day off.
An American geek stumbling through Zürich culture.