Local festivals and festi in lucca

S

SMJ

New member
Hi;
I would like to know if there any any Saints Day celebrations or small street festivals to celebrate local customs or produce, while I am in Lucca from April 29-May 13 , 2012 please.
The only thing I've ever been lucky enought to come across in Italy was a Polenta Festival in Monterchi once; and I would like to see a similar sort of celebration in Lucca, if there are any that anyone knows of!
Thank you!:)
 
Ciao SMJ!

As for official patron saint celebrations during the time period you indicated, I just found that Coreglia Antelminelli has San Michele as a patron saint and celebrates it on May 8. This small town is in the Garfagnana area to the north of Lucca, a valley running alongside the Apuan Alps that we highly recommend you visit in any case.

I also found that Lucca celebrates Santa Zita on April 27 but celebrations seem to be tied to a flower market spread out in the area between the Piazza dell'Anfiteatro and the San Frediano church. You might catch this on the 29th, since it is likely it spreads over the weekend.

Lucca's patron saint is San Paolino which falls on July 12. Many others in the area are in July and August.
This doesn't mean you won't catch any "sagre" as the small food related street festivals are called. Many of them are just not publicized widely on the internet a whole lot of time ahead..... so I'd suggest you check back in with us in March, to see if we can find something specific going on then, once we're closer to the date. If we find interesting events going on, we always add them to our Tuscany events calendar.
 
St. Zita feast day on April 27

I learned from the web - "Every year on April 27, citizens of Lucca bake bread and bring flowers (often daffodils) to San Frediano in celebration of her feast day, and the saint is brought out to be touched by the pious."

Does it mean- The saint will be brought out of her silver casket and the people are allowed to touch her remains directly?

Thanks for any information.
 
Well... the casket containing her remains is on display and the glass casket is touched, but I do not believe the remains are ever taken out of the casket. You can see a small picture of the casket in the lower bottom of this page on the Lucca city website describing the celebrations around the commemoration of her death on the 27th of April - http://www.comune.lucca.it/flex/cm/pages/ServeBLOB.php/L/IT/IDPagina/3003 - to get a better idea of what goes on.
 
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