When is Sardinia's Day?
Sardinia's Day (Sardinian: Sa Die de Sa Sardigna) is a regional holiday in Sardinia, Italy on April 28th each year.
On this day in 1793, Sardinians freed their island from Piedmontese domination
History of Sardinia's Day
Sardinia is the second-largest island in the Mediterranean Sea.
A full history of Sardinia could run into several paragraphs, if not pages, as the island has seen various waves of immigration over many centuries. We will drop in at the middle of the 18th century when the island was under the control of the House of Savoy. Many locals were becoming disenchanted with their Piedmontese administration with many resenting the feudal rule and nobles from the mainland controlling the island.
In 1793, the French tried to invade and conquer the island. The local Sardinians managed to repel the invaders. This show of strength emboldened the Sardinians who asked the Savoyards to acknowledge their defence of the island and improve their conditions by giving them more autonomy.
The King's refusal to grant any of the islander's requests was the last straw.
On April 28th 1794, locals in Cagliari started hunting down all the Piedmontese officials they could find and expelled Viceroy Balbiano. This act of revolution is known as the Sardinian Vespers.
Some Piedmontese tried to avoid capture by dressing as locals. To weed them out, anyone suspected to be from the Italian mainland would be asked by to say "chickpea" (nara cixiri) in Sardinian: unless they were local they would pronounce the word incorrectly and give themselves away. Within a month, the uprising had spread across the island and all the Savoyard officers had been sent back to the mainland.
The day became a public holiday in 1993 and public events are held to commemorate the events of 1794, while the schools are closed.
