Much Flag Waving

We planned to meet some friends in Piazza San Marco but when we got there where thousands of flag waving Venetians celebrating St Mark's Festival. It took us a while to find our friends, mobile phones are wonderful things, and so it only seemed natural to join in the celebrations.




St. Mark’s Festival of Venice, Italy, or Festa di San Marco, is an important religious observation of the city’s beloved patron, Saint Mark, who perished on April 25, 68 A.D. Saint Mark was one of Christ’s disciples and the author of the Gospel of Mark.
The commemoration of Saint Mark also came to be celebrated as Liberation Day, when Italy gained its independence on April 25, 1945. It is also the day when Italians honour their fallen soldiers. Prior to that, however, Venetians marked April 25 as Rosebud Day, or Festival of the Blooming Rose.
Starting in the year 828, two Venetian merchants, Buono da Malamocco and Rustico da Torcello, smuggled Saint Mark’s remains over to Venice bypassing Turkish inspections as they hid the relics within a stock of pork meat. Turkish customs officials were disgusted by the smell of pork. Hence, the wise merchants’ ploy was never uncovered.
Back in those days, relics were widely cherished and Malamocco and Torcello knew this. Their keen public relations strategy, if you will, attracted pilgrims to Venice, taking them away from rural settings and into the city.