The wild race of 15 May
Every year on 15 May, the eve of the feast of the patron saint Ubaldo, Gubbio celebrates one of the oldest, most spectacular and heartfelt popular festivals in Italy: the Corsa dei Ceri, the Race of the Candles. Its origins go back to the Middle Ages, perhaps to 1160, the year of the death of the bishop Ubaldo Baldassini, who had saved the city from the siege of eleven enemy cities, and the festival has been repeated without interruption for centuries, with a passion that involves the whole population. The three "ceri" are not candles but tall wooden structures, about four metres high and weighing about 280 kilos, in the shape of two octagonal prisms, each topped by the statue of a saint: Sant'Ubaldo, protector of the masons, San Giorgio, of the merchants, and Sant'Antonio Abate, of the peasants.
The day begins at dawn and is full of rituals: in the morning, in Piazza Grande, the ceri are "raised", lifted to the vertical in a moment of great emotion, among the crowd and the throwing of jugs. In the afternoon, the "ceraioli", the bearers, dressed in white trousers and shirts of yellow, blue and black according to their cero, carry them on their shoulders at a run through the steep streets of the city, changing teams on the move without stopping, and then up the very steep path of Monte Ingino to the Basilica of Sant'Ubaldo, where the ceri are kept. It is not a competition in the usual sense: the order of the ceri never changes, with Sant'Ubaldo always first, and the goal is to run well, without letting the cero fall. For the people of Gubbio it is the most important day of the year.
Tip: find a place early along the route; on the first Sunday of May, the ceri are brought down from the basilica to the city.
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