A tradition that resembles a historical event is the “Miracle of the Snow”, which takes place every August 5 in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome. The 2025 edition of the spectacle will take place in Piazza di Santa Maria Maggiore on Tuesday,  5 August at 21.00.

Rome celebrates La Madonna della Neve (Our Lady of the Snows) by recreating a miracle snowfall outside the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore during the height of summer.

But why?

Relatively “new” because it is only since 1983 that we remember, thanks to the idea of ​​the architect Cesare Esposito, the extraordinary snowfall which, according to tradition, occurred on August 5, 358, in Rome in the Esquilino district. A prodigy linked to a legend, according to which the Madonna appeared in a dream of Pope Liberius, requesting to build a Church where it would snow in August.

It was August 5, 358 AD. When Rome woke up, it was under a blanket of white snow. An unusual fact still told today, from year to year, from generation to generation, which gave rise to what has gone down in history as the miracle of the snow. But how was this myth born? According to legend, on the night of August 5, 358 AD, the Virgin Mary appeared in a dream to the then Pope Liberius and the patrician John, asking them to build a Church in the place he indicated. When they woke up, the Pope and the patrician found the Esquiline covered in snow in the middle of August. That event went down in history as the miracle of the snow, and the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, dedicated to the Madonna, was built where it snowed.

Every year, on August 5, a celebration is held to celebrate the Madonna della Neve and a solemn mass is held to pay homage to the Virgin Mary. A sound and light show is organised in the square in front of the Basilica, after which an artificial snowfall is reproduced, recalling what would have occurred in 358 AD.

For forty years, the snow has been evoked with a cascade of white flower petals, light shows, celebratory liturgies and video mapping.

The anniversary is in memory of “Our Lady of the Snow”: during the celebration of mass in the morning and Vespers in the evening, a cascade of white petals comes down from the centre of the coffered ceiling in correspondence with the crypt of the manger. A shower of petals that also recalls the red rose petals thrown into the hole of the Pantheon for Pentecost, which Vistanet talked about in a previous article.

The Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore is a place of great historical and religious importance, located in the heart of one of Rome’s most picturesque and fascinating neighbourhoods.

Pope Francis, who died in April and is buried in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, attended the Vespers ceremony last year.

The late pontiff made more than 100 trips to the fifth-century papal basilica where he prayed in front of the icon of ‘Maria Salus Populi Romani’ before and after trips abroad.