In Venice for the Feast of the Redeemer

filled by Giulia

Who does not know Venice?
Many people, however, not been there during the weekend of the Feast of the Redeemer.
Waiting, mystery, color, joy and happiness. Sacred and profane. And an explosion of fireworks that stand behind the domes and towers of the city.
Between Saturday and Sunday of the third weekend of July commemorates the end of the plague with a ritual that is repeated for four years.
On September 4, 1576, the Senate decided that the Doge had to build a church in honor of the Redeemer to put an end to the plague, with the promise that every year the city would honor the church. The church was built and designed by Palladio in the island of Giudecca. A bridge was arranged with 80 galleys through the canal was crossed by a crowd of Venetians who survived the epidemic, aware that the misfortune had ceased. In 1677 the plague was finally eradicated, and so it was decided to celebrate with a religious ceremony included a folk festival. Even today the celebrations are repeated every year ...
Since sundown on Saturday hundreds of boats decorated and illuminated flow into the basin of San Marco and the Giudecca Canal. By boat we celebrate and dine together, with traditional Venetian dishes, waiting for the fireworks show, which starts at 23.30 and lasts until after midnight.
Then the boats meet at the Lido to await sunrise. The day after the festival ends with a gondola regatta and with the solemn function presided by the Patriarch in the Church of the Redeemer on the Giudecca. The celebration is followed by a religious procession through the votive bridge of boats, built for the occasion in the Giudecca Canal, just like 400 years ago, the Church of the Redeemer to connect with Venice and Venetians allow to come to pay homage to redeemer.