Public holiday in Italy
Feast of St. Mark in Italy
Saturday, April 25, 2026
Local public holiday
Observed in Venice
Feast of St. Mark is a local public holiday in Venice, Italy, held on 25 April in years when it falls on the calendar date shown in the holiday data. It marks the city’s patron saint and is relevant mainly within Venice rather than across Italy as a whole.
About Feast of St. Mark in Italy
In Venice, the Feast of St. Mark is the civic and religious feast day associated with the city’s patron saint, Saint Mark the Evangelist. Its significance is local: it is a public holiday in Venice, not a nationwide Italian holiday, and its observance is tied to the city’s identity and history as the home of St. Mark’s relics and the Basilica di San Marco.
History
Venice’s association with St. Mark dates to the ninth century, when Venetian tradition says the evangelist’s relics were brought to the city from Alexandria. From that point onward, St. Mark became the city’s patron, and his winged lion emblem grew into one of Venice’s most enduring symbols. The feast day later became a civic marker for the republic and remains a local holiday in modern Venice.
Traditions
A traditional focus of the feast is religious observance connected with St. Mark and with San Marco, the city’s patronal church. In Venice, the day is also associated with the custom of giving or sharing a rosebud, known locally as the bocciolo di rosa, as a symbolic gift.
How Feast of St. Mark is celebrated in Italy
Today the feast is observed mainly in Venice with church services, local ceremonies and limited civic attention rather than large nationwide events. The day is a practical holiday locally, so many residents and institutions in Venice treat it as a non-working day.
Interesting facts
The winged lion of St. Mark is Venice’s best-known civic emblem and appears throughout the city. The city’s main square, basilica and many institutions are named for San Marco, reflecting the saint’s long-standing local importance.
Dates in published calendars
| Year | Holiday date | Observed date | Scope |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 25 Apr 2026 | — | Venice |
Import sources
- Generic ICS feed
An import is not an independent verification.