Festa de la Sensa 2017 and the Wedding with the Sea: 27/28 May 2017

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The Fèsta de la Sènsa is the Venetian name for the feast day of the Assumption of Mary.

Venice cares a lot about this feast, in fact, the celebration lasts for 2 days, every year.

The Festa de la Sensa is a annual meeting that makes you relive the important relationship between the Serenissima Republic and the Sea. This is also an occasion to take the oars and start rowing as Venetian used to do and still do.

The Festa de la Sensa celebrates two important events for the Serenissima Republic: the day when Pietro II Orseolo, 26th Doge of Venice, helped Dalmatians who had been threatened by Slavs (May 9, 1000) and the establishment of the Peace of Venice, a peace treaty between the papacy and its allies, in 1177.

For all these reasons the Council of Ten decided to celebrate the Festa de la Sensa every year, on the Assumption Day. Another celebration you should attend on these days is the so-called Sposalizio del Mare (Wedding with the Sea).

Every year, the Doge, on board the Bucintoro (the doge’s official ship), reached the island if St. Elena, where the bishop of Venice was waiting for him. Once there the bishop blessed the Doge, then the Chief of Venice used to throw a ring into the water, as if he got married with the sea.

Festa de la Sensa programme

May 27th

Sensa’s Ceremony

May 28th

Sense water parade

9.am: Meeting time in St. Mark’s Basin

9.30 am: Start of the parade

10.30am: Wedding with the Sea ceremony in front of St. Nicolò Church in Lido

11am: Concert by Coro Serenissima in front of the curch San Nicolò del Lido

11.30am: Holy Mass at the church of S. Nicolò di Lido

Regatta of the Sensa

• Women’s twin-oared mascarete regatta
• Regattas of the Rowing Season organized by the Municipality of Venice
• men’s regatta on 4 oars gondolas

Course of the regattas: Basin of San Marco - Riviera St. Nicolò, where the prize-giving will take place.