La Fête du Baiser ("festival of the kiss") is a

festival A festival is an event ordinarily celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, mela, or eid. A festival c ...

celebrated the Saturday after

St. Valentine's Day Valentine's Day, also called Saint Valentine's Day or the Feast of Saint Valentine, is celebrated annually on February 14. It originated as a Christian feast day honoring one or two early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine and, throu ...

, in Roquemaure,

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

, near

Avignon Avignon (, ; ; oc, Avinhon, label=Provençal dialect, Provençal or , ; la, Avenio) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Vaucluse Departments of France, department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region of So ...

. Begun in 1989, it commemorates not only

Saint Valentine Saint Valentine ( it, San Valentino; la, Valentinus) was a 3rd-century Roman saint, commemorated in Western Christianity on February 14 and in Eastern Orthodoxy on July 6. From the High Middle Ages, his Saints' Day has been associated with a ...

, whom locals claim as a former resident, but the arrival of his remains in 1868 to Roquemaure's

collegiate church In Christianity, a collegiate church is a church where the daily office of worship is maintained by a college of canons: a non-monastic or "secular" community of clergy, organised as a self-governing corporate body, which may be presided over by a ...

reliquary A reliquary (also referred to as a ''shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including ''wikt:phylactery, phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it i ...

. Celebrations revolve around a return to a 19th-century way of life, including costumes and markets. The relics of St Valentine were purchased in Rome, in hopes of curing the town's diseased

vine A vine (Latin ''vīnea'' "grapevine", "vineyard", from ''vīnum'' "wine") is any plant with a growth habit of trailing or scandent (that is, climbing) stems, lianas or runners. The word ''vine'' can also refer to such stems or runners themselv ...

stocks; within four years they were healed. Today, Roquemaure is home to a

winery A winery is a building or property that produces wine, or a business involved in the production of wine, such as a wine company. Some wine companies own many wineries. Besides wine making equipment, larger wineries may also feature warehouses, ...

(Cellar St. Valentine) which produces wines named after the saint. The festival was started by a local priest, Father René Durieu. Men and women around the village dress as priests and nuns, kissing each other, as well as travelers. Special foods and wines are produced especially for the festival.

External links

Lip service: The wine and the kisses flow during a passionate French festival
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Sydney Morning Herald ''The Sydney Morning Herald'' (''SMH'') is a daily compact newspaper published in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, and owned by Nine. Founded in 1831 as the ''Sydney Herald'', the ''Herald'' is the oldest continuously published newspaper i ...

'', February 18, 2005
La Fête des Baisers ou La Festo de Poutoun

La Fête du Baiser : Saint Valentin à Roquemaure
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fete du Baiser, la Recurring events established in 1989 February events Festivals in France Gard Tourist attractions in Gard Festivals established in 1989