Luminara di Santa Croce 2026 will take place on Sunday, September 13, 2026, in the beautiful and historic city of Lucca. This deeply evocative religious celebration is one of the most important events in Lucca’s cultural and spiritual calendar, transforming the city into a glowing landscape of candlelight, prayer, and solemn procession. Luminara di Santa Croce is a religious feast held on the eve of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, celebrated every year on September 14. In both Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy, the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross honors the Cross itself as the supreme instrument of salvation, recalling its rediscovery and its central role in Christian theology. In Lucca, this universal Christian celebration takes on a distinctly local character, intimately connected to the city’s most revered sacred object: the Holy Face of Lucca (Volto Santo). On this occasion, the buildings, streets, churches, and squares of Lucca are decorated with thousands of candles, carefully placed to outline architectural details and illuminate the path of the solemn procession. This ancient tradition survives today in only a few Italian cities and is now common exclusively in Lucca for Luminara di Santa Croce and in Read more [...]