Festivities+in+Veneto

SANTA LUCIA, CARNEVAL IN VENICE, VENETIAN TRADITIONAL FESTIVITIES

SANTA LUCIA

Santa Lucia is a traditional festivity of Verona. It represents the beginning of the Christmas celebrations for every child of the city of Romeo and Juliet. In the traditional iconography Santa Lucia rides a donkey. During the night between the 12th and the 13th December, all the children, before going to bed, put near the door of their house a bowl full of water and a carrot for the donkey, together with their letter in which they have written the toys and other things that they would like to be given. If the child's behavior has been good all over the year, Santa Lucia will bring him/her presents; otherwise, only black coal! This is a tradition that goes back to the Middle Age and there are many events linked to it, which end with the stalls of Santa Lucia.

OMBRALONGA

Ombralonga is not a festivity but an event that deserves to have a proper space in this page! This special event takes place every year in Treviso, on the third Sunday of October and it had been created to give the people the opportunity to discover the beauty of Treviso and its wine! It is a sort of trip along the streets of the city centre: all the "participants" pay a little money as inscription, and they are given a wine glass and a map of the city so they can visit the centre and having a rest (...or more than one...!) in the "osteria" (typical Venietian restaurant), having good wine and tasting delighting homemade Venetian food. As you might expect, in the evening people are a bit tipsy...but they are all happy to enjoy an unconventional Sunday.



THE CARNIVAL Carnival, or Carnevale, is Venice's answer to Mardi Gras and Fasching. For eight days before Lent each winter, tourists flood the city for an orgy of pageants, commedia dell'arte, concerts, balls, and masked self-display until Shrove Tuesday signals an end to the party. The term //"carnevale"// comes from the Latin for "farewell to meat" and suggests a good-bye party for the steaks and stews that Catholics traditionally gave up during the weeks of fasting before Easter. The masquerade aspect of Carnival is even older: the Romans celebrated winter with a fertility festival where masks were worn by citizens and slaves alike. In its glory days of the 1700s, the //Carnevale di Venezia// began on December 26 and lasted until Ash Wednesday, with mask-wearing and other unofficial activities continuing well into the spring. The nonstop partying, gambling, and general irresponsibility reflected the decline of the Venetian Republic, which had begun to lose wealth and power with the rise of Dutch and British trade in the 1600s. After Napoleon Bonaparte conquered Venice in 1797, the Republic was finished and so were the desultory remnants of Carnival.



THE REDENTORE FEAST-DAY It’s one of the most traditional festivities in Venice and it’s celebrated every year on the third Saturday of July, to remember the end of the plague in the XIV century. During this feast in Giudecca is built a votive bridge of boats that connects the island to the city, while people eats traditional venetian dishes under the stars on the fundament. Near San Marco and along Giudecca’s channel many illuminated boats gather all together, eating and waiting for the firework show at midnight. Then some boats go to Lido to wait for new dawn. The weekend ends with a gondola regatta and religious celebrations.





Giulia, Roberta and Chiara. In this photo Laura is missing.