When: May 15th
Where: Gubbio
Background
La Corsa Dei Ceri is the procession marking the eve of the death of Bishop Ubaldo Baldassini, who was canonised as Protector of Gubbio.
The Event
The event revolves around the eponymous Ceri – or candles. In this case, the candles in question are large, wooden objects in the style of battering rams. At the start of the ceremony, the candles are carried by three teams of men from the Palazzo dei Consoli and taken to the Piazza Grande. Once there, the teams attach small statues of St George, St Anthony and St Ubaldo to one end of each candle. After bells have rung out at 11.30am, the teams lever the Ceri in upright positions, with the captain of each team at the top of the pole bearing a large ceramic vase of water. The captains will then fling the vase as far as they can into crowds of people. It is said that if any of the crowd successfully obtain a piece of the shattered vase, then they will have good luck and good, healthy crops for the next year.
After this, the Ceri are taken three times around the Piazza and then at 2pm, a large-scale seafood banquet takes place. At 4.30pm, a religious procession of the relics of St Ubaldo takes place before the big race at 6pm.
The curious thing about the race of the Ceri is that St Ubaldo always wins. The candles are raced up 300m of mountainside into the mountainside basilica – once inside, the victors must try and keep the runners-up out. But the real aim of the contest is to not drop the candle. The team that drops the candle the fewest times is actually the winner.
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