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Milan’s Sant’Ambrogio: La Scala’s Opening Night and the Oh Bej! Oh Bej! Market

Italian holidays · Sant’Ambrogio

One saint, one opera house and a 500-year-old market: Milan’s favorite day of December.

Quick answer

Sant’Ambrogio (Saint Ambrose) is Milan’s patron saint, celebrated on December 7. It’s a local holiday in Milan: that evening La Scala opens its opera season (la Prima), and the Oh Bej! Oh Bej! Christmas market fills the area around Castello Sforzesco.

Who was Sant’Ambrogio?

Ambrose was the bishop of Milan in the 4th century. Milan never got over him.

The Milanese still call themselves ambrosiani. Their diocese even has its own way of celebrating Mass, the Ambrosian rite, where Advent lasts six weeks instead of four. And the city’s highest civic award, handed out every December 7, is nicknamed l’Ambrogino d’oro, “the little golden Ambrose”.

💡 Day off, Milan only

December 7 is a holiday only in Milan. December 8 is a holiday all over Italy. So the Milanese often get a lovely long weekend: il ponte di Sant’Ambrogio, “the Sant’Ambrogio bridge”.

La Prima: La Scala’s opening night on December 7

Since 1951, the opera season at the Teatro alla Scala opens on Sant’Ambrogio.

It’s opera, but it’s also a national event: a red carpet, evening gowns, politicians in the boxes and the whole show live on Italian TV. The opera is also screened in squares, cinemas and community spaces around Milan, so you don’t need a ticket to be part of it.

Up in the top gallery, the loggione, sit the most passionate fans in Italy. They know every note, and if a singer disappoints, they boo. Outside, there’s often a protest or two. It’s almost part of the tradition.

🇺🇸 The Met Opera opening night

New York, in the fall. A glamorous gala, black tie, a fundraising dinner.

Big news for opera lovers.

🇮🇹 La Prima della Scala

Milan, always December 7. A city holiday, live on national TV.

The next morning, all of Italy talks about the outfits as much as the singing.

This year (2026–27)

On December 7, 2026 La Scala opens its season with Verdi’s Otello, conducted by Myung-Whun Chung, the theater’s new music director, and staged by Damiano Michieletto.

Oh Bej! Oh Bej!: Milan’s oldest Christmas market

Say it like a happy child: oh BAY, oh BAY. In Milanese dialect it means “Oh, how beautiful!”

Legend says Milanese kids shouted it in the 1500s, when a papal envoy, Giannetto Castiglione, rode into town on December 7 with boxes of sweets and toys. The fair has moved over the centuries: from Piazza Mercanti to the streets around the Basilica of Sant’Ambrogio, and since 2006 to the area around Castello Sforzesco.

For a few days around December 7 you’ll find crafts, toys, old prints, sweets and the smell of roasted chestnuts. Look for the firunatt: smoked chestnuts strung into long necklaces.