# Ferragosto
**Ferragosto** is the Italian civil holiday of 15 August, which coincides with the Catholic feast of the [Assumption of Mary](https://www.edgepedia.org/assumption-of-mary), and, by extension, the summer vacation period surrounding that date.[1](https://dizionari.corriere.it/dizionario_italiano/F/ferragosto.shtml) The name derives from the Latin *feriae Augusti*, the "rest of Augustus", and the holiday carries Roman, Christian, and modern layers: an ancient summer rest day originally observed on 1 August, a medieval and baroque Roman festival calendar, and a 20th-century tradition of mass holiday travel.[2](https://www.feste-italiane.it/ferragosto/storia-origini/storia-del-ferragosto-dalle-feriae-augusti-alla-gita-di-massa/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Date | 15 August, coinciding with the religious feast of the Assunta (Assumption of Mary)[1](https://dizionari.corriere.it/dizionario_italiano/F/ferragosto.shtml) |
| Original date | 1 August, the Kalendae Augusti, before the Church moved the festival to the 15th[3](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ferragosto_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/) |
| Etymology | Latin *feriae Augusti*, "the rest of Augustus"; first Italian attestation dated 1571[4](https://dizionario.internazionale.it/parola/ferragosto) |
| Roman attribution | Attributed to Emperor Augustus in 18 BC as rest after the end of agricultural work, though no surviving Roman source names the *Feriae Augusti*[2](https://www.feste-italiane.it/ferragosto/storia-origini/storia-del-ferragosto-dalle-feriae-augusti-alla-gita-di-massa/) • [5](https://www.sciencecue.it/2026/08/15/ferragosto-e-le-feriae-augusti-che-cosa-dicono-davvero-le-fonti-romane/) |
| Legal status in Italy | 15 August is listed among Italy's public holidays (as Assumption of Mary, Ferragosto); timeanddate classifies "Ferragosto" itself as an observance falling on that date[6](https://www.italia.it/en/italy/practical-information/time-zones-and-public-holidays-italy) • [7](https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/italy/ferragosto) |
| Modern meaning | Also denotes the vacation period around mid-August, from a long weekend (*ponte*) to most of the month[4](https://dizionario.internazionale.it/parola/ferragosto) |
## Etymology and earliest sense
[The Italian](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-italian) word comes from the Latin plural *feriae Augusti*, literally the "festivals of August", which folk etymology also read as the "rest of Augustus".[2](https://www.feste-italiane.it/ferragosto/storia-origini/storia-del-ferragosto-dalle-feriae-augusti-alla-gita-di-massa/) In its original sense the term named the first day of the month of August, the *Kalendae Augusti*, a day that in some places continued to be celebrated into recent times.[3](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ferragosto_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/) Italian dictionaries date the word's first attestation to 1571, placing it in the 16th century as a popular festival term.[4](https://dizionario.internazionale.it/parola/ferragosto)
## The Roman feriae
Popular accounts attribute the institution of the *feriae Augusti* to Emperor Augustus in 18 BC, as a rest period marking the end of the major agricultural work, celebrated at the kalends of August and connected with the god Conso, protector of agriculture; in imperial times the vacation period was renamed the *augustals*, the source of the modern name.[2](https://www.feste-italiane.it/ferragosto/storia-origini/storia-del-ferragosto-dalle-feriae-augusti-alla-gita-di-massa/) • [8](https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/newsletter/202410EN.pdf) On these occasions workers offered good wishes to their masters and received signs of liberality in return, a custom that survived in recognizable form into the modern era.[8](https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/newsletter/202410EN.pdf)
The August calendar held several neighboring festivals: the Vinalia rustica on 19 August, dedicated to the vintage; the Nemoralia on 13-15 August, dedicated to Diana; and the Consualia on 21 August.[9](https://www.ilgiorno.it/cronaca/ferragosto-storia-fascismo-impero-romano-14d2a301) The documented record is thinner than the tradition: no [Roman calendar](https://www.edgepedia.org/roman-calendar), no inscription, and no ancient author, according to one recent review, registers a festival actually called *Feriae Augusti*, so the attribution of the name and the 18 BC date rests on later reconstruction rather than a surviving source.[5](https://www.sciencecue.it/2026/08/15/ferragosto-e-le-feriae-augusti-che-cosa-dicono-davvero-le-fonti-romane/) The Treccani encyclopedia, writing in 1938, took the connection with the *feriae augustales* at face value while dating the festival itself to 1 August.[3](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ferragosto_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/)
## Transfer to 15 August
The [Catholic Church](https://www.edgepedia.org/catholic-church) transferred and absorbed the ferragosto into the feast of the Assunta, the Assumption of Mary, on 15 August; even after the change the festival kept its popular character, retaining the customs of tips and gifts on the new date.[3](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ferragosto_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/) One account describes the shift as gradual and regional rather than a single act of [Christianization](https://www.edgepedia.org/christianization).[10](https://nunc.ch/events/feriae-augusti/var/ri-5.l-L1/) The Assumption feast itself is mentioned by the time of St. Theodosius of Palestine (c. 424-529) and St. Ildefonsus of Toledo (607-667), and the 15 August date is attested by the *Gelasian Sacramentary* of the 6th-7th centuries, which records the Mass *Assumptionis Sanctae Mariae*.[8](https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/newsletter/202410EN.pdf) In the popular celebration, sacred rites continued to be joined by profane ones.[8](https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/newsletter/202410EN.pdf)
## Work customs and Roman celebrations
**The employer's day.** Until not many years before 1938, workers left their labor on ferragosto and went in a group to their employer to offer good wishes, receiving in exchange either a dinner or tips. The masons were the workers most attached to this tradition, and in some places they continued to celebrate the first of August itself.[3](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ferragosto_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/) A special list had fixed the measure of the tips that cardinals, ambassadors, and high dignitaries were expected to dispense, until [Pope Julius II](https://www.edgepedia.org/pope-julius-ii) abolished it.[3](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ferragosto_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/)
Rome gave the festival its most notable public forms. In medieval Rome a night procession of ferragosto took place, in which the guilds, dignitaries, and officials paraded under arches of leaves and flowers along a long route. In the Rome of the 17th century, [Piazza Navona](https://www.edgepedia.org/piazza-navona) was deliberately flooded for the occasion.[3](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ferragosto_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/) In the 16th and 17th centuries, and later, the feast's pagan and Christian manifestations were both present in the city.[8](https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/newsletter/202410EN.pdf)
## The modern Italian holiday
In the 20th century the day acquired its modern social function as the fixed date of the summer exodus. The *Treni popolari* (popular trains) introduced for Ferragosto 1931 under the Fascist regime made 15 August the day on which [Italians](https://www.edgepedia.org/italians) moved en masse to the seaside or the mountains, and the association of the date with mass travel has persisted since.[2](https://www.feste-italiane.it/ferragosto/storia-origini/storia-del-ferragosto-dalle-feriae-augusti-alla-gita-di-massa/)
Today 15 August appears on Italy's official list of public holidays as "Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Ferragosto)", alongside [New Year's Day](https://www.edgepedia.org/new-years-day), Liberation Day, Republic Day, and Christmas.[6](https://www.italia.it/en/italy/practical-information/time-zones-and-public-holidays-italy) The holiday classifier timeanddate, by contrast, lists "Ferragosto" in Italy as an observance rather than a public holiday, noting that businesses and schools may close because the date coincides with the Assumption of Mary.[7](https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/italy/ferragosto)
By metonymy the word also covers the surrounding vacation period, whether a long weekend built around the day or most of the month of August, when many businesses, especially small and family-run ones, close.[4](https://dizionario.internazionale.it/parola/ferragosto) The image of the emptied city has entered Italian culture: Nanni Moretti's *Caro Diario* (1993) opens with its protagonist riding a Vespa through a deserted Rome at Ferragosto, and Dino Risi's *Il sorpasso* (1962) is set during the holiday.[11](https://elpais.com/icon/2025-08-17/el-mito-veraniego-de-la-ciudad-vacia-bochorno-y-soledad-o-encuentros-inesperados.html) Celebrations on the day itself combine religious and festive elements, such as the sea procession for the Madonna Assunta in Amalfi, alongside contemporary music festivals.[12](https://assets.cdn.thewebconsole.com/S3WEB9873/images/NEWSLETTER-Sept-2025_compressed.pdf?m=36a04547911b4abf722c61db8ef8223d)
## References
1. [Ferragosto, Dizionario di Italiano Sabatini Coletti, Corriere.it](https://dizionari.corriere.it/dizionario_italiano/F/ferragosto.shtml)
2. [Storia del Ferragosto: dalle Feriae Augusti alla gita di massa, Feste Italiane](https://www.feste-italiane.it/ferragosto/storia-origini/storia-del-ferragosto-dalle-feriae-augusti-alla-gita-di-massa/)
3. [FERRAGOSTO, di Raffaele Corso, Enciclopedia Italiana - I Appendice (1938), Treccani](https://www.treccani.it/enciclopedia/ferragosto_(Enciclopedia-Italiana)/)
4. [Ferragosto, Dizionario italiano De Mauro](https://dizionario.internazionale.it/parola/ferragosto)
5. [Ferragosto e le Feriae Augusti: che cosa dicono davvero le fonti romane, Science CuE](https://www.sciencecue.it/2026/08/15/ferragosto-e-le-feriae-augusti-che-cosa-dicono-davvero-le-fonti-romane/)
6. [Time zones and public holidays in Italy, Italia.it](https://www.italia.it/en/italy/practical-information/time-zones-and-public-holidays-italy)
7. [Ferragosto 2026 in Italy, timeanddate.com](https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/italy/ferragosto)
8. [Feriae Augusti - Ferragosto - Feast of the Assumption, Vatican Library Newsletter (October 2024)](https://www.vaticanlibrary.va/newsletter/202410EN.pdf)
9. [Ferragosto, storia di una festa antichissima: dall'imperatore Augusto al fascismo, Il Giorno](https://www.ilgiorno.it/cronaca/ferragosto-storia-fascismo-impero-romano-14d2a301)
10. [Feriae Augusti, Nunc est bibendum](https://nunc.ch/events/feriae-augusti/var/ri-5.l-L1/)
11. [El mito veraniego de la ciudad vacía, El País ICON (2025)](https://elpais.com/icon/2025-08-17/el-mito-veraniego-de-la-ciudad-vacia-bochorno-y-soledad-o-encuentros-inesperados.html)
12. [Newsletter Sept 2025, parish bulletin](https://assets.cdn.thewebconsole.com/S3WEB9873/images/NEWSLETTER-Sept-2025_compressed.pdf?m=36a04547911b4abf722c61db8ef8223d)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Food, customs, and everyday culture › Public holidays and civic commemorations*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 30, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license