Pisan new year’s eve

You could think the Pisan New Year’s Eve is on January the 1st, as in the whole Italy, but it is not. In ancient times, in the Grand Duchy of Pisa another calendar was on: the new year started on March, 25.

Until 1749, the “Pisan Style” was opposed to the “Modern Style”, the present calendar, and nowadays this tradition lives again in the heart of the city. The celebration of the ancient Pisan New Year’s Eve was revived from the Eighties and if you are in Pisa in Spring, we strongly suggest you to take part in it.

It is, in fact, a great town festival, with historical parades, flag bearers and folkloristic shows crossing the city streets. The event usually starts a couple of days before March 25. Among the most exciting appointments, take note of the Luminara on Lungarnos, similar to the one celebrating the patron San Ranieri on June 16.

On the day of the Pisan New Year’s Eve, an historical parade winds through the city towards the Cathedral, where the celebration takes place: a brief ritual ending, according to the tradition, at midday sharp.

This is the moment when, in ancient times, a ray of sunshine used to cross the window of the Cathedral and hit the sundial appointed for welcoming the new year. Nowadays the sundial has been replaced with an area of the Cathedral where a marble egg is located, however the symbolic meaning is the same now and then.