On Monday 25 March Pisa, according to tradiotion, enters the year 2025.

The beginning of the Pisan Year is marked by a 'sundial'. In Pisa Cathedral, a ray of sunlight entered through a window known as the 'Aurea', striking an area close to the high altar at midday on the dot. In time, this clock disappeared due to the heavy alterations made to the cathedral during the 17th century. The sun mechanism was later reinstated between the 19th and 20th centuries, using a different window and establishing as a target an egg-shaped shelf on the pillar next to where Giovanni Pisano's pulpit was reassembled in 1926.

The sunbeam ceremony was revived in the late 1980s.

The Municipality of Pisa organised numerous events on the occasion of the Pisan New Year, events that culminated in the ceremony of the sunbeam entering through a window of Pisa Cathedral in the presence of the city authorities.

PROGRAMME

SATURDAY 23  MARCH

 11.00 am - Chiesa della Spina 

• "Infiorata dell'Annunciazione", reproduction with flower petals of an image of the Annunciation. The Chiesa della Spina will remain open to the public until 25 March with the following opening times: 10 a.m.-12 noon and 2-5 p.m.

4.30 pm - Sala delle Baleari of Palazzo Gambacorti 

• Ceremony for the 50th Anniversary of the Association of Flag Wavers and Musicians of the City of Pisa

9.30 pm - Piazza dei Cavalieri

• "Aurora", a theatrical performance presented by the Piccolo Teatro Nuovo. Medieval-inspired show with actors, stilt-walkers, music and pyrotechnic effects.

SUNDAY 24 MARCH

10.30 am - Sala delle Baleari of Palazzo Gambacorti

• Welcoming guest groups from the provinces of Florence, Lucca, Pistoia, Prato and Siena

11.15 am - Piazza XX Settembre, P.zza Garibaldi, Largo Ciro Menotti

• Guest groups to follow procession to Piazza dei Cavalieri

3.00 pm - Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II

• grouping of figures and parade framing 

3.15 pm - from Piazza Vittorio Emanuele II 

• Departure of the procession along Corso Italia, Ponte di Mezzo, Piazza Garibaldi, Borgo Stretto, via Dini, Piazza Cavalieri with the participation of the historical representatives of Gioco del Ponte, Repubblica di Pisa, Palio di San Ranieri, Compagnia Balestrieri di Porta San Marco, Compagnia Balestrieri Pisa

4 pm - Piazza dei Cavalieri

•  intertainment in rhyme and jokes by Giullar Cortese (Gianluca Foresi)

4.30 pm - Piazza dei Cavalieri 

• VEXILUDI PISANI - PISAE RECIPIT ANNUM - flag show with performances by all guest groups and the Gruppo Musici Sbandieratori 'Città di Pisa' (City of Pisa Flag-waving Musicians Group)

6.30 pm - return procession through the streets of the historic centre

MONDAY 25 MARCH

11.00 am - Piazza XX Settembre - Piazza del Duomo 

• Historical procession of the Pisan Representation will parade from the Palazzo Comunale to the Cathedral for the sunbeam ceremony

 11.30 pm - Cathedral of Pisa  

• Sunbeam cermeony 

On 24-25-26 March, the municipal buildings will be decorated as usual with the historic banners of Pisa. The Ponte di Mezzo will be decked out with the banners of the ancient mediaeval districts of Ponte, Mezzo, Foriporta and Chinzica.

On the occasion of the celebrations, the restored model dedicated to medieval Pisa, created in 2003 on the occasion of the conference 'Pisa and the Mediterranean', will be exhibited at the Arsenali Repubblicani. It will remain on display until 7 April 2024, as part of Steve McCurry's exhibition 'Icons'.

Historical notes

New Year’s Eve in Pisan Style.  From the 10th century the Pisans made the beginning of the year coincide with the Annunciation (and then the Incarnation of Jesus), that is 9 months before December 25. Thus the Pisan Year ab Incarnatione Domini (or Christi) was obtained. The first document dated in Pisan Style that attests it dates back to 985. This year’s start date remained in force for centuries also in the lands belonging to the Republic of Pisa: the coast between Portovenere and Civitavecchia, Gorgona, Capraia, Elba, Pianosa, Corsica, Sardinia, Balearic Islands, Gaeta, Reggio Calabria, Tropea, Lipari, Trapani, Mazara, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Syria, the city of Azov (in the Sea of the same name, at the mouth of the Don River) and Constantinople, where the Pisans were the only Westerners to be able to settle, along with the Venetians.

Ceremony of the sunbeam. Different, compared to the traditional, is then the moment of the transition to the New Year that does not correspond to Midnight but to the South, when from a window of the central nave of the Duomo a ray of sun illuminates the shelf shaped like an egg placed on the pillar next to the famous pergamum by Giovanni Pisano.

Revival of tradition. The New Year in Pisan Style lasted until November 20, 1749, the day on which the Grand Duke of Tuscany, Francis I of Lorraine, ordered that in all the Tuscan states the first day of the following January began the year 1750. Therefore, Pisa also had to conform to the use of the Gregorian calendar. Only in the 80s of the twentieth century this anniversary was mentioned again and since then the New Year has returned to be celebrated with cultural initiatives in advance of the rest of the world.