Feasts, celebrations and ceremonial

Painting of the Bucintoro heading towards the sea on the day of the Ascension

The Republic of Venice had its feasts and celebrations like any other state, except most of these traditions are now long gone and very often entirely forgotten.

Popular feasts

  • The Festa delle Marie was a very popular event in Venice, celebrated from sometimes in the 900s until the 1370s.
  • Associated with the Festa delle Marie was the annual feast of Santa Maria Formosa on February 2nd, when the doge with much ceremonial visited the church of Santa Maria Formosa.
  • Of course, there was the month-long Carnival every year, until the very end of the Serenissima.

Celebrations and anniversaries

State ceremonial

  • However, we’ll make another — about the elaborate, and rather curious, ceremonies around the death and burial of the Doges of Venice.
  • The Festa della Sensa is an ancient celebration of the Venetian dominance of the sea, in the form of a symbolic marriage between the Venetian state and the sea.

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