We celebrate Swiss National Day (August 1st) to remember the founding of the Old Swiss Confederacy. The Federal Charter of 1291 agreed between the rural communes of Uri, Schwyz, and Unterwalden is considered the confederacy's founding document, even though similar alliances are likely to have existed decades earlier. . This year it's been 731 years since this event, which is said to have occurred on the Rütli meadow, a hidden cove on Lake Luzern "sometime in August 1291".