Rowers Get Into Seasonal Celebrations

Rowing Christmas decorations in Sarastoa, Florida. Credit City-Data

So, this is Christmas, and what have we done; another year over and a new one just begun.

Rowers love seasonal celebrations, whether through parades, humour or songs. Finding connections between seasonal celebrations, such as Christmas, for example, and rowing, revealed activities that may surprise you. They certainly surprised us.

Rowing The World has a trip in Venice and Venice has a Santa parade.

Head Of The Charles is a regatta that some call Rowing Christmas, even though it’s in October. Also, you can shop for great gifts.

These and other obvious or obscure connections are to be found herein; evidence that rowers, though disciplined, get into seasonal celebrations, even when not in season. We close with a jovial participation exercise:  a Christmas ditty only rowers may sing, even if they can’t.

Venice, Italy

Epiphany of La Befana

Venice holds hundreds of regattas annually, but Epiphany of La Befana is a standout.

This unusual regatta is celebrated among members of the oldest Venetian rowing society, Canottieri Bucintoro, at Epiphany, in early January along the Grand Canal. Fifty men find long skirts and knit wraps to dress up as La Befana, the good Epiphany witch, in a race to reach a giant sock. How fun!

The legend of La Befana, dates back to pre-Christian times and is one of the most popular Italian traditions. Nowadays, in the Christian culture, La Befana, a charming older—and clearly very fit—woman, flies in on a broom, slides down the chimney, bearing gifts and stuffing hanging socks between the 5^th and 6^th of January.

The shawl-laden rowers paddle up the Grand Canal toward the Rialto Bridge, competing to be the first to reach a gigantic stocking that hangs from the bridge.

Credit AP

Babbo Natale Regatta Parade

While La Bafana is something only found in Italy, Santa is the same all over the world. In Italy, however, his name is Babbo Natale, or Daddy Christmas.

Pictured here, rowers don Santa Claus outfits on the Canal Grande in Venice, Italy. Traditional rowing boats of every size come out to participate in the traditional water procession and Santa Claus parade. If Rowing the World’s Greek Vogalonga Weekend trip ran in December, you bet we’d be in this one.

The Venice Christmas Boat Parade, Venice, Florida

Traditionally held on the first Saturday of December, the Venice Christmas Boat Parade starts along the Intracoastal Waterway in Venice at the Albee Road Bridge in Nokomis and moves south along the waterway. Because nearby Sarasota has rowing clubs, they have been known to set up lighted rowing displays.

Head Of The Charles Regatta as Christmas

Not exactly HOCR but you get the idea. Santa rowers in Passau Germany Photo credit JOSEF LANG/AFP/Getty Images

 The Head Of The Charles Regatta (HOCR) has attracted hundreds of thousands of rowers and spectators to the banks of the Charles River since 1965 for the biggest two-day rowing race in the world. HOCR has been called Rowing Christmas by some crews, because a strong gathering-of-the-rowing-family spirit prevails, even though it is held in October. Besides ongoing time trials and competitions, non-stop activities include boathouse events, reunions, and other entertainment. It could, however, also apply to the shopping experience on the aptly named Attager Row. More than 40 vendors line the banks of the Boston side of the river from Friday morning through to the last race of the day on Sunday. Here you can shop for everything from rowing related products and licensed merchandise, to jewelry or even an Aston Martin.

An Historic Rowing Christmas Card

Our friends at Hear the Boat Sing tell an interesting story about the origins of a Christmas card sent in 1939. It features a pic from the 1923 Henley Royal Regatta—shown in the link for the article—of the Thames Rowing Club beating Pembroke College, Cambridge, in the final of the Grand Challenge Cup.

Finally, because we know all rowers like to get into the season with celebrations that inspire breaking into song, we leave you with this rowified Christmas ditty, Big Blue Swells. Sing to the tune of Jingle Bells  with your mates in the club, or, a suggestion, alone at home. Greetings of the Season!

Big Blue Swells (to the tune of Jingle Bells)

Thrashing through the waves
In a four-seat open quad
O’er the crest we go
Laughing at our bod
Skilled strokes make oars glide

T’ward spirits at the club
What fun it is to sweep and slide
In a coastal quad we lub

[Chorus]
Big blue swells, big blue swells
Big blue all the way
Oh, what fun it is to slide
On an ocean of this world, hey
Big blue swells, big blue swells
Big blue all the way
Oh, what fun it is to slide
On a boat with Rowing The World.