Night of San Lorenzo (shooting stars)
10 August 2026 — Look up! Every shooting star carries a wish.
On 10 August Italy marks the Night of San Lorenzo (Saint Lawrence). Lawrence was a Roman deacon who died in 258, and his feast day falls on 10 August. According to folk belief, the shooting stars seen that night are his tears, and each one carries a wish. The sight itself has an astronomical cause: from mid-July to late August Earth passes through the stream of dust left behind by comet Swift–Tuttle, crossing its densest part in mid-August. This produces the Perseids (a meteor shower in which tiny dust grains burn up in the atmosphere and appear as streaks of light). They peak around 12–13 August, but many meteors are already visible on the 10th. Italians go out to fields, beaches and hills, spread blankets and watch the sky. The night also appears in poetry, for example in Giovanni Pascoli's poem „X Agosto“ („10 August“). The best viewing is far from city lights, and it is better still when the Moon is low or absent, leaving the sky darker.
Flying across the sky: An ethereal, bluish-silver figure made of luminous dots and fine lines, like a constellation: two sitting silhouettes close together on a blanket, one pointing up at the sky
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