CARNIVAL IN VENICE

The Venice Carnival is the largest and most important Venetian festival, an appreciated cocktail of tradition, entertainment, history and transgression in a unique city, a festival that attracts thousands of people from around the world each year. The Carnival has very old origins. It is a festival that celebrates the passage from winter into spring, a time when seemingly anything is possible, including the illusion where the most humble of classes become the most powerful by wearing masks on their faces. The official start of the Venice Carnival dates back to 1296, when the Senate of the Republic made the Carnival official with an edict declaring the day before Lent a public holiday. After an interruption lasting almost two centuries, the tradition of Carnival was rediscovered by the Municipality in 1980 and since then it has taken place every year with success.

St. Valentine: Who was this man?

St. Valentine was a priest who lived before Christ in the era of emperor Claudius. This emperor had the idea of creating a super army but, for this, he needed many soldiers to volunteer. As this didn't happen, the emperor decided to forbid marriages so as to have soldiers without a family who would easily be part of his army and fight in the battles.
Nobody liked this decision and Valentine went on celebrating marriages in secret. One day, he was caught: The young couple run away but he went to jail. Many couples showed their solidarity by throwing notes or flowers through the window and the guard's daughter became his friend. On the day he was going to be killed, he wrote her a letter signed with "love from Valentine".
Tradition says that from this day on people exchange love notes on the day Valentine was killed (14th February) to remember and celebrate his courage and determination to protect love.

English Day

English Day Revisited

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Visiting Sintra