A New Year’s tradition in Rome: a plunge in the Tiber!

Every year, no matter the weather… or the pandemic, a few brave men led by a Maurizio Palmulli, known to Romans as Mister OK, keep alive a rather…. chilly tradition: taking a plunge in the river Tiber.

Mr. Palmulli knows what he’s doing: he’s a certified lifeguard and always warns onlookers not to copy him!

Why jumping into the Tiber?

That of Mr. Ok’s is a decades-old tradition, as foreign media like to point out, which started in 1946 when another lifeguard tried to advertise his skills by leaping into the waters of Rome’s main river.

At the time, with Italy just out of WW2, lifeguards (as well as other professions, obviously) had a particularly rough time in the city: the Tiber housed plenty of beach clubs but very few people felt like spending time sunbathing or swimming. Hence the sensational gesture, which overtime has become a way of attracting good fortune to the Eternal City: if Mr. Ok’s jump is successful, Rome will have a great year.

The same thing happened in (very) ancient Rome!

The actual tradition behind the plunge is much, much older, though!

Unbeknownst to the starter of this particular custom, the great Latin poet Ovid recalled a terrible tradition in archaic Rome. In the “Fasti” he wrote that the god Jupiter demanded that each Roman gens had to sacrifice someone from the family at the beginning of each year. According to legend, Hercules himself tricked Jupiter by switching actual people with puppets.

The celebration continued on and became a prominent part of the Lemuria, an ancient Roman festival that took place on 9, 11 and 13 May of each year. To exorcise the spirits of the dead, the Vestal Virgins threw puppets made of reeds from the banks of the Tiber from what is now known as the Ponte Rotto, the broken bridge (Pons Aemilius).

Where to see Mr. Ok take a plunge into the river?

While you cannot encounter ancient priestesses or see reed puppets float over the Tiber, you can still witness the success of Palmulli/Mr. Ok’s feat on New Year’s Day: reach the Ponte Cavour bridge (the one closest to the Ara Pacis Museum and the recently reopened Mausoleum of Augustus). The events will start at around 10AM, with Mr. Ok and his cohorts diving in at 12 noon.