thumb|The [[Frecce Tricolori, with the smoke trail representing the national colours of Italy, above the Victor Emmanuel II Monument in Rome during the celebrations of the Festa della Repubblica, Italy's National Day These include a mix of national, religious and local observances. In Italy, there are also State commemoration days, which are not public holidays.
Overview
thumbnail|[[President of Italy Sergio Mattarella on the presidential car Lancia Flaminia during the military parade along Via dei Fori Imperiali in Rome during the Festa della Repubblica on 2 June 2018]]
Italy's National Day, the Festa della Repubblica (Republic Day), The ceremony of the event organized in Rome includes the deposition of a laurel wreath as a tribute to the Italian Unknown Soldier at the Altare della Patria by the President of the Italian Republic and a military parade along Via dei Fori Imperiali in Rome.
thumb|[[Anti-fascist demonstration on the occasion of the Liberation Day in Florence on 25 April 2009]]
Liberation Day is a national holiday in Italy that takes place on 25 April commemorating the victory of the Italian resistance movement against Nazi Germany and the Italian Social Republic, puppet state of the Nazis and rump state of the fascists, in the Italian Civil War, a civil war in Italy fought during World War II. The date was chosen by convention, as it was the day of the year in 1945 when the National Liberation Committee of Upper Italy (CLNAI) officially proclaimed the insurgency in a radio announcement, propounding the seizure of power by the CLNAI and proclaiming the death sentence for all fascist leaders (including Benito Mussolini, who was shot three days later).
17 March was proclaimed a national holiday in 1911, the 50th Anniversary of the Unification of Italy, in 1961, the 100th anniversary of the Unification of Italy, and in 2011, the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy. The law no. 222 of 23 November 2012 the Giornata dell'Unità nazionale, della Costituzione, dell'inno e della bandiera ("Day of National Unity, the Constitution, the anthem and the flag") was established to be celebrated on 17 March of each year, on the day of the proclamation of the Unification of Italy in 1861, however it is not to be considered a festive day.
Until 1977 the following were also considered public holidays in Italy for civil purposes:
- 19 March, Saint Joseph Day;
- 40 days after Easter, Ascension of Jesus;
- 60 days after Easter, Corpus Christi;
- 29 June, Saints Peter and Paul, patron saints of Rome (it remained a public holiday only in the municipality of Rome);
- 4 November, National Unity and Armed Forces Day.
These public holidays were suppressed, during the austerity caused by the 1973 oil crisis, on the basis of the law n. 54 of 5 March 1977. Italy entered World War I in 1915 with the aim of completing national unity and for this reason, the Italian intervention in World War I is also considered the Fourth Italian War of Independence, in a historiographical perspective that identifies in the latter the conclusion of the unification of Italy, whose military actions began during the revolutions of 1848 with the First Italian War of Independence.
In addition to the 12 national holidays, each city or town celebrates a public holiday on the occasion of the festival of the local patron saint. For example, Rome on 29 June (Saints Peter and Paul), Milan on 7 December (Saint Ambrose), Naples on 19 September (Saint Januarius), and Florence on 24 June (Saint John the Baptist); Venice celebrates on 21 November (Saint Mary of Health) because the patron day on 25 April (Saint Mark the Evangelist) is also the Liberation Day. When a holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, it is common practice to make a ponte (pl. ponti. English: "bridge") in order to have a long weekend. Schools are usually closed.
Christmas in Italy (in Italian: Natale) begins on 8 December, with the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the day on which traditionally the Christmas tree is mounted and ends on 6 January, of the following year with the Epiphany (in Italian: Epifania). The term "Natale" derives from the Latin natalis, which literally means "birth". Easter in Italy () is one of that country's major holidays. Easter in Italy enters Holy Week with Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday, concluding with Easter Day and Easter Monday. Each day has a special significance.
During the Italian public holidays, peaks of tourist flows in Italy are recorded, particularly in winter due to the Christmas and New Year's Day holidays, in spring, due to the Easter holidays, and in summer, due to the favourable climate. For internal tourism, peaks of tourist flows are also recorded on the occasion of the three national civil holidays, Liberation Day (25 April), International Workers' Day (1 May) and the Republic Day (2 June), as well as for three religious holidays, the Ferragosto (15 August), All Saints' Day (1 November) and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (8 December), especially in the presence of ponti.
In 2025, Italy moves to create the Feast of St Francis of Assisi as a public holiday.
Current holidays
thumb|[[Christmas lights at Verona Arena in 2006]]
thumb|[[Ferragosto fireworks display in Padua on 15 August 2010]]
thumb|[[Anti-fascist demonstration at Porta San Paolo in Rome on the occasion of the Liberation Day on 25 April 2013]]
thumb|[[Patronal festival in Catenanuova, Sicily]]
Current holidays in Italy are: Before 1947 the two days were working days, with banks and offices open.
|}
State commemorations
The following days are not public holidays, but are nevertheless official State commemorations.
Civil solemnities
thumb|The former [[President of Italy Giorgio Napolitano during his speech for the National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe on 10 February 2007]]
thumb|[[President of Italy Sergio Mattarella paying homage to the Italian Unknown Soldier at Altare della Patria in Rome during the National Unity and Armed Forces Day on 4 November 2022]]
{| class="wikitable"
! width="12em"|Date||English Name||Italian Name||width="50%"|Remarks
|-
| 10 February||National Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe||Giorno del ricordo|| Made a national day by law no. 92 of 30 March 2004. It is an Italian celebration for the memory of the victims of the Foibe and the Istrian–Dalmatian exodus, which led to the emigration of hundreds of thousands (between 230,000 and 350,000) of local ethnic Italians (Istrian Italians and Dalmatian Italians) from Yugoslavia after the end of World War II.
|-
| 11 February||Lateran Treaty Day It is officially named Giornata nazionale di Cristoforo Colombo ("National Christopher Columbus Day").]]
thumb|The [[Capitoline Wolf, now illustrating the legend that a she-wolf suckled Romulus and Remus after their mother's imprisonment in Alba Longa. Natale di Roma is a festival linked to the foundation of the city of Rome, celebrated on 21 April.]]
{| class="wikitable"
! width="12em"|Date||English Name||Italian Name||width="50%"|Remarks
|-
| 7 January||Tricolour Day|| Festa del tricolore|| Flag day made a national day by law no. 671 of 31 December 1996. The official celebration of the day is held in Reggio Emilia, the city where the Italian tricolour was first adopted as flag by an Italian sovereign state, the Cispadane Republic, on 7 January 1797.
|-
| 26 January||National day of remembrance and sacrifice of the Alpini||Giornata nazionale della memoria e del sacrificio degli Alpini|| Made a national day by law no. 44 of 5 May 2022. It is an international memorial day that commemorates the victims of the Holocaust, which resulted in the murder of one third of the Jewish people, along with countless members of other minorities between 1933 and 1945 by Nazi Germany, an attempt to implement their "final solution" to the Jewish question.
|-
| 1 February||National day of civilian victims of wars and conflicts in the world||Giornata nazionale delle vittime civili delle guerre e dei conflitti nel mondo|| Made a national day by law no. 9 of 25 January 2017. including 1 billion people in more than 193 countries.
|-
| 5 May||National day against pedophilia and child pornography||Giornata nazionale contro la pedofilia e la pedopornografia|| Made a national day by law no. 41 of 4 May 2009. celebrated on 5 May by the Council of Europe and on 9 May by the European Union.
|-
| 14 June||World Blood Donor Day||Giornata mondiale del donatore di sangue||World Blood Donor Day is held on 14 June each year. The event was organised for the first time in 2005, by a joint initiative of the World Health Organization, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies to raise awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products, and to thank blood donors for their voluntary, life-saving donations of blood.
|-
| 2 October||Grandparents' Day||Festa dei nonni|| Made a national day by law no. 159 of 31 July 2005.
|-
| rowspan="2" |24 October||United Nations Day||Giornata delle Nazioni Unite||United Nations Day is an annual commemorative day, reflecting the official creation of the United Nations on 24 October 1945. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly declared 24 October, the anniversary of the Charter of the United Nations, to "be devoted to making known to the people of the world the aims and achievements of the United Nations and to gaining their support for" its work.
|-
| National day of entertainment||Giornata nazionale dello spettacolo|| Made a national day by law no. 164 of 28 October 2021. The premise of the day is to raise awareness around the world that women are subjected to rape, domestic violence and other forms of violence; furthermore, one of the aims of the day is to highlight that the scale and true nature of the issue is often hidden.
|-
| Third Sunday of November||National day in memory of road victims||Giornata nazionale in memoria delle vittime della strada|| Made a national day by law no. 227 of 29 December 2017. is an international day dedicated to raising awareness of the AIDS pandemic caused by the spread of HIV infection and mourning those who have died of the disease.
|}
See also
- Culture of Italy
- Christmas in Italy
- Ferragosto
- Traditions of Italy