Venice Redentore Celebration, Feast of the Redeemer: Joy, Fireworks and Boats

Dates of the Redeemer's Day, the Festa del Redentore 2024

The fireworks for the Feast of the Redeemer 2024 will be fired on Saturday, July 20, 2024, at 11:30 p.m..
The celebrations will run until Sunday, July 21, with the gondola regatta along the Giudecca Canal.

La Festa del Redentore and its Fireworks

The Redentore Festival, “la Festa del Redentore”, the Sagra del Redentore, is one of the biggest popular festivals in Venice, which has always lived in symbiosis with the water of the lagoon and the sea that surrounds it.

The traditional “feste sull'acqua”, water festivals, are the most beautiful Venetian festivals linked to significant events in the history of the Venetians, who still participate with the same joy and enthusiasm as before.

And among them, the Festa del Redentore (the c's Day) or “Sagra”, the sacred festival, is the water festival by excellence.

The Festa del Redentore, the Redeemer Feast Celebration in Venice and its Fireworks

Festa del Redentore On the eve of the third Sunday in July, on Saturday evening, all Venetians leave with their families on rowing boats or motorboats decorated with multi-coloured balloons, leaves, flowers, garlands and lanterns.

The boats are then anchored in Saint Mark's Basin to have a picnic and have fun on board, waiting for nightfall, and the fireworks show that will be fired from the shore of the island of La Giudecca.

We talk, eat, drink, play music, and laugh a lot; we all feel good together, as united as all these boats moored to each other and forming an enormous floating island.

Imagine the San Marco basin with 3,500 boats and 50,000 spectators spread all around the basin, on the Riva degli Schiavoni, the Zattere and all along the island of Giudecca, to watch one of the most beautiful fireworks in the world.

Festa del Redentore The Giudecca Canal becomes a vast mirror full of colours and a magnificent sounding board for fireworks.

And that's when, for more than half an hour, we all vibrate to the sound and colours of the fireworks, fired continuously, with bouquets of colours and stars launched into the sky of Venice in a magnificent aerial ballet.

But a party in Venice would not be a party without regattas.

Also, the next day, the Pupparini regattas (fast rowing boats used in the past for maritime surveillance) and Gondolas take place.

Festa del Redentore A Venetian festival has occurred every year for four and a half centuries.

On July 21, 1577, the first Redentore Celebration took place.

The Festa del Redentore is the festival of life, the celebration of Venice that survived the plague of 1575-1576, which killed nearly 60,000 Venetians despite the precautionary measures taken to contain it.

The date of the feast has been fixed since its inception for the third Sunday in July in memory of the promise made to God by Doge Alvise Mocenigo.

Festa del Redentore Indeed, on September 4, 1576, as a final remedy to the virulence of the plague and in accordance with the wishes of the Doge, the Senate decided to build a church dedicated to Christ the Redeemer on the island of Giudecca where, every year, the Doge accompanied by all the dignitaries and all the people of Venice will attend a solemn mass after crossing the Giudecca Canal on a bridge of boats.

A Floating Votive Bridge between the quays of the Zattere and the Island of Giudecca

Initially, the Redentore rowboat bridge consisted of galleys moored to each other, on which the floor of this temporary bridge, which ran from Saint Mark's Square to join the Giudecca Island, was placed and measured 620 meters.

Redentore votive bridge Later, it was reduced to 360 meters, leaving the Santo Spirito church on the Quai des Zattere in Dorsoduro to cross the Giudecca Canal to the Redentore Church.

In the 19th century, galleys were replaced by Flat-bottomed Peottes, transport boats that were then the most used in the lagoon.

Peottes (in Italian peate, peata in the singular) were big rowing boats manoeuvred by only two rowers!

And it was also aboard these Peottes, decorated with verdant branches, garlands, lanterns and multiform and multicoloured Palloncini (Venetian balloons), that families organised feasts with orchestra and prepared tables, the main course of which was stuffed duck.

Then, when the Peottes disappeared in favour of motorboats, it became difficult to build the votive bridge according to traditional criteria; the military engineers were then called in to install a metallic Bailey votive bridge.

Redentore votive bridge The current Redentore Votive Bridge consists of floating metal platforms on which the procession crosses the Giudecca Canal to attend the Sunday mass of the Redentore Day.

The votive bridge for the Feast of the Redeemer (or Sagra), built for the procession, offered Venetians an excellent opportunity to cross the canal to cool off in the gardens of the island of Giudecca.

Thus, People took advantage of this festive night to taste blackberries and feast under the arbours or to stroll along the shore buying supplies from street vendors.

The profane has gradually mixed with the sacred over time, and this night of the Sagra has become tinged with paganism by becoming a kind of bender—a celebration of the joy of living.

Redentore Day: A Great Moment of Shared Happiness

As in the past, we chat, drink well and eat lots of good things.

The Festa del Redentore, decorated boat in front of the Rialto bridge in Venice

In front of Rialto Bridge And, among others: “Sopressa”, a large sausage typical of the Veneto region, cut into fairly thick slices, the “Sarde in Saor”, the “Prosciuto Crudo”, raw ham cut into ultra-thin slices so that it melts in your mouth with the melon, the “Tramezzini”, small triangular sandwiches with white bread, and especially “Angouria”, in Venetian, the watermelon, very fresh and cut into pieces!

Everyone is on board, from the youngest to the oldest, so family and friends together to picnic on the water under the lantern lights, chatting while joking with those in the neighbouring boats.

It is then an enormous, good-natured cacophony that resonates throughout the Saint Mark's basin.

And on this basin, which became the property of the Venetians for a few hours, it's only music, songs and laughs.

Festa del Redentore Some dance, others throw themselves into the water and swim in the middle of the boats.

It's forbidden, but everyone doesn't care; wine improves things.

Today, everything is allowed; it's time to celebrate!

The Festa del Redentore: Fireworks in front of Thousands of Boats

Three to four hours later, at 11:30 p.m., there is silence: the fireworks begins.

Sitting and standing on their thousands of boats, the Venetians are then motionless, seized by the sound of thunder from rockets, which resound and take you to your belly with its power, by the smell of powder floating on the water, by these bouquets of colours and stars that burst in the sky while being reflected in the mirror of the water.

Festa del Redentore The fireworks are everywhere, above and below, it envelops you, cover you with their light, colourful flashes and their deafening noise amplified into as many echoes by the water in the basin.

Surprised, happy, still paralyzed by happiness, no one is moving, even though it has already been a minute since the last fireworks flare was fired.

The night has returned; we are in the dark in the middle of the water, the spectators, the Venetians, yet the spoken word artists cannot yet speak or move.

Festa del Redentore Then there is an immense explosion of joy, the cheers and bravos, the cries of happiness of more than 50,000 voices that suddenly swell up and roll like an enormous sound wave that reverberates and resounds throughout the San Marco basin and the Giudecca Canal.

It is over, as every year it was magnificent, moving and unique.

Unique because this festival is also the communion of an entire people, the people of Venice, united as before on their boats, Venetians happy to be there all together, proud to be children of Venice.

Writers Testimonies

Redentore Feast Fireworks | Writers Testimonies | Venetian Songs | Plague in Venice
Celebrations Historical Regatta | Redentore | Salute | Vogalonga | Marathon | Marys | St Martin
What's On Celebrations | Exhibitions | Biennale | Mostra Cinema

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