The party has five centuries and commemorates the devastation of the island, on June 24, 1169, by Como, lined up to punish the islanders, in the Italy of Commons against the Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Milan in the war against Como ( 1118-1127); the remote sources are, however, the village festival in honor of the Baptist to propitiate the summer harvest. History tells us that the Ghibellines Como retaliation followed the destruction of fortifications and houses and the basilica of St. Euphemia, that preserved relics of the Martyrs donated by Sant'Abbondio in the fifth century, while the survivors and the relics were saved on ' other side of the lake, Varenna, renamed “Insula Nova” .

A legend says that three centuries after the horrific massacre in 1435, St. John the Baptist as a pilgrim to appear for a chance to isolate and has asked to dig under a walnut tree. And so the ruins of the basilica have emerged, along with the historical memory of the islanders who rebuilt their church joyfully. Since then, every year for St. John the Baptist, celebrating the memory of those events.

On the evening before the lake is richly illuminated. A time with oil lamp posts in the shells of snails, lake, called “ lumaghitt”; now with candles placed in boats, on the balconies of the homes and lands. The idea of ​​lumaghitt comes from the habit of cooking snails stewed with polenta on the eve of St. John.

Fireworks explosion "ignited" the island and the night with 1,200 locations to shoot more than 10 tons of fireworks to 400 meters, the lake lit by thousands of lumaghitt floats. Remember that fire and destruction of the island, lighting up the mirror to the mainland, called Zoca de l'oil (oil basin), because of the extensive groves of the side that dare to flourish in a latitude so unusual. An area which has a climate so mild as to encourage the flowering of Mediterranean species such as olive trees, vines, laurels, and, on the slopes of the mountains, thick forests of chestnut trees. A land, islands, lake and mountain, which explodes with ever changing colors of the changing seasons. From the spring, when nature revives and covers of a thousand colors of flowers among the green meadows and trees. In the autumn, when green gives way to yellow, red and brown.

On Sunday, a procession of boats, such “lucie”, colorfully decorated and conducted by boatmen in traditional dress, contains the relics on the island Comacina; board authorities, priests and people joyful. After putting on the lawns on the banks of the lake, picnic with various tasty traditional food.

Conclusion in beauty, with the explosion of competitive spirit and pride of the coastal municipalities in the wonderful "Regatta of Saint John", boat  lucie reserved, typical boats arranged for lake racing, leaving from and arriving in Ossuccio – Sala Comacina .