A tradition of the Beaufort Water Festival started centuries ago and across the globe

The 62nd annual Beaufort Water Festival closed Sunday with the traditional Blessing of the Fleet, a final echo of the festival’s theme this year: “Families, Friends and Traditions.”

The community gathered by land and water to celebrate that theme at Henry C. Chambers Waterfront Park on Sunday afternoon for an event that originated from a centuries-old tradition.

Blessing a fleet is traditionally a Christian — more specifically, Catholic — exercise to ask God to bless fishing or shrimping boats and their crews in order to bring a bountiful harvest. The tradition spread across the world from Mediterranean communities and is now a tradition in the U.S. It is particularly common in seaside and water-dependent cities and towns along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

The parade and decoration competition aspects are also common after the initial blessing as part of a larger celebration, such as Beaufort’s.

The blessing in Beaufort on Sunday did not see any shrimp trawlers or any other commercial boats, but 16 pleasure boats passed by Father Andrew Trapp to be blessed. After the blessing, several boats took part in the Parade of Boats.

A boat named Southern Comfort claimed the best decorated prize, and the Song of the Sea won the judges’ favorite prize, longtime announcer John Barber said.

This story was originally published July 23, 2017 at 5:39 PM with the headline "A tradition of the Beaufort Water Festival started centuries ago and across the globe."