Festa del Redentore

Redentore, Festa del

Third Sunday in July

Festa del Redentore, or Feast of the Redeemer, is celebrated in Venice, Italy—one of only two remaining provincial religious festivals surviving in Venice. (The other is at the church of the Salute on the Grand Canal, which commemorates deliverance from the plague, but is more religious in nature.)
It also marks the end of the plague in the late 16th century, when the people of Venice dedicated a church on Guidecca Island to Jesus the Redeemer and vowed to visit it every year. They continue to keep their promise by building a bridge of boats across the Guidecca and Grand canals, across which worshippers can walk back and forth during the celebration. At dawn, the boats all go out to the Lido to watch the sun rise over the Adriatic Sea. During the festival the cafes, shops, canals, and the church are decorated with lights. When the bridge of boats closes at around nine o'clock, a fireworks display begins.
Services inside the Church of the Redentore, which include masses commemorating the redeeming power of Jesus, are quite solemn in comparison to what is going on outside—a festival that has been described as the "Venetian Bacchanal."

CONTACTS:
Italian Government Tourist Board
630 Fifth Ave., Ste. 1565
New York, NY 10111
212-245-5618; fax: 212-586-9249
www.italiantourism.com

SOURCES:
BkHolWrld-1986, Jul 19
GdWrldFest-1985, p. 120

Celebration days: Jul 17, 2011; Jul 15, 2012; Jul 21, 2013; Jul 20, 2014; Jul 19, 2015