Celebration of St. Blaise or the Day of Dubrovnik

The 3. February is celebrated as the Day of Dubrovnik. You may have read our post from a year ago about the patron of Dubrovnik, St. Blaise. There was a very strong wind, and lots of rain in the first days of February, and the regular ship line wasn't even operating for a couple of days.

This year we were lucky and had pleasant weather so the residents of Dubrovnik and the area could enjoy the celebration of our city's patron, joining in a traditional procession around and down the main Stradun street in Old Dubrovnik. Last year the procession with all other rituals had to be cancelled because of the bad weather conditions. Then I wrote about the legend of St. Blaise and how he helped the ancient Ragusans to protect and to save their city.

This time I would like to share more about the festive atmosphere in Old Dubrovnik, the bright colours and the beautiful traditional costumes that people from Dubrovnik wore to show their pride as residents of Dubrovnik, and to express respect to the ancestors who worked and fought amazingly hard to build and to protect this beautiful city with remarkable history and heritage that is today visited by people from all over the world.

The event was attended by the prime minister Andrej Plenković, the city major Mato Franković and other state officials.

Here are a couple of shots from this colorful and a truly happy day that deserves a dedicated trip to Dubrovnik in February.

Beautiful laurel wreath decorations, flags and images of St. Blaise adorned the city. The Croatian National Television HRT was filming the event with reporters and cameras on several major spots in Old Dubrovnik.

We felt so happy :)

Waiting for the start of the procession. Representatives of Dubrovnik's districts as well as from citizens' associations (The Defenders' of Dubrovnik group, the Cultural Club etc.) and from many different cities such as Šibenik, and even from further away like Varaždin or even Tomislavgrad in Herzegovina were present, many wearing their own traditional costumes.

We were there to walk for Suđurađ under our very own flag. Photo credit: Marija Goravica-Miletić.

Dubrovački trambunjeri are very special to Dubrovnik and they symbolise the city's brave defenders. Every year on the day of St. Blaise they put an exciting shooting show at the old port.