The Festa di San Nicola (Festival of St. Nicholas) is celebrated in Italy on the anniversary of the transfer of the saint’s relics by a group of 11th-century sailors from Bari. Thousands of pilgrims come to the Basilica of San Nicola in Bari, Puglia, to worship at the saint’s tomb and to ask for his help. There is a procession on this day in which a group of Barese sailors take the saint’s image down to the water, where it is placed on a flower-decked boat and taken out to sea. At night the statue is returned to its place of honor on the altar of San Nicola’s crypt. Discuss
Source: The Free Dictionary