Christmas in Caorle

Lights and colours blend into a medley of beauty that brings emotion on the most important night of the year. Sacred and secular rites mingle, a stone’s throw from the sea. But Christmas in Caorle starts much earlier, with the rush for presents and the greetings sent to friends in Austria, Germany and other places in Europe and the world, which usually arrive in time.
Then comes 24 December. The children stay home from school, the cold weather invites bonfires, and the few hotels open fill up with people from Caorle coming back to their old homes, never pulled down.
The appointment for a very ancient rite is at 11 pm, an hour before midnight. On the sea wall connecting the Levante and Ponente beaches, opposite the thousand-year-old cathedral and its beautiful bell tower, the Baby Jesus arrives. He comes from the sea, following a powerful and little-known ritual. The little statue is carried by divers from the local Caorle club. The divers reach the rocks and bring the Child, who is received into the arms of the monsignor who shortly afterwards will celebrate Midnight Mass in the cathedral of Santo Stefano. This tradition recalls the landing in the 6th century, during the iconoclastic struggle, of the statue of the Virgin Mary, recovered by a group of fishermen, the legend behind the ancient origins of the church on the water, the old sanctuary of the Madonna dell’Angelo. The rites of 25 December in the main church are very traditional. Other local churches hold services at all hours.
But the secular programme has its charm too and appeals above all to children. Between 20 and 24 December, depending on the day, Father Christmas arrives to bring presents to the children. Father Christmas also visits the elderly residents of the Don Moschetta care home in Viale Buonarroti and then the children of the primary schools before the Christmas holidays begin.
After Christmas come the celebrations of Saint Stephen, the first Christian martyr. 26 December is a public holiday, but the Catholic rites are not particularly affected. Saint Stephen is a popular saint round here, but he is not, as many think, the patron saint of Caorle. The town is said to have two, Saint Roch and Saint Michael the Archangel, to whom the little church by the sea originally seems to have been dedicated. The churches of three important towns are dedicated to Saint Stephen: as well as Caorle, San Stino di Livenza and Concordia Sagittaria. San Stino takes its name from archaic Venetian, in which Stefano was called Stino. In Concordia Saint Stephen is celebrated on 3 August, by papal dispensation, the day on which his remains were recovered in ancient times.