A long-standing tradition celebrated in Jessup recently added something new. Jessup\u2019s St. Ubaldo Day and the Race of the Saints, also known as \u201cLa Festa dei Ceri,\u201d has a new title for women called La Miss.<\/p>\n
St. Ubaldo Day will be held Saturday, May 23, through the streets of downtown Jessup. The borough started celebrating St. Ubaldo Day in 1909.<\/p>\n
The festival comes from an even longer running tradition in Gubbio, Italy, that immigrants brought to Jessup. During this festival, the families of Sant\u2019 Ubaldo, San Giorgio and Sant\u2019 Antonio come together to celebrate, according to the St. Ubaldo Society\u2019s website. In the Race of the Candles, or \u201cLa Corsa dei Ceri,\u201d three teams of men carry wooden pillars topped with statues of their patron saints.<\/p>\n
The title of La Miss is a new tradition given to three women, one from each of the families of St. Ubaldo, St. George and St. Anthony, that was added to La Festa dei Ceri in 2024. This is the third year the tradition will be part of the celebration in Jessup. However, La Miss was already a part of the tradition in Gubbio, Italy.<\/p>\n
With adding La Miss, Jessup wants to try to mirror the tradition in Italy, according to Sabrina Shander, La Miss Santubaldara.<\/p>\n
Sabrina Shander joined in the tradition of St. Ubaldo Day in 2005 after being invited by her friend, Sarah Youshock. That year, they both served as water girls, helping to pass out water to those running the race.<\/p>\n
St. Ubaldo Day is about tradition and family, according to Sabrina Shander. During St. Ubaldo Day, Shander said the community comes \u201ctogether as one\u201d and creates friendships and family throughout the year.<\/p>\n
Kelly Hall, La Miss Sangiorgiana, enjoys the tradition and learning more about it each year. She has been involved in St. Ubaldo since the year 2000. Her husband, Scott Hall, is the president of the St. Ubaldo Society and has run in the race since he was 5 years old. Their son, Evan Hall, once served as capodieci, the captain of the family, in the children\u2019s race, \u201cLa Corsa dei Ceri Piccoli,\u201d and now runs with the men, according to Kelly Hall.<\/p>\n
Each year, people from Gubbio, Italy, attend the celebration in Jessup and give insight on the traditions. The celebration in Jessup is a \u201csmaller scale, but just as big of a heart,\u201d said Jillian Baldan, La Miss Santantoniara.<\/p>\n
Jillian Baldan has been involved in St. Ubaldo day for the last 10 years. Her family started the tradition. Then her late husband, Jesse Baldan, started as a runner when their son, Dominick Baldan, was born.<\/p>\n
Being La Miss for the saint\u2019s family \u201cis basically like being a mother,\u201d said Sabrina Shander.<\/p>\n
Those in the role of La Miss do many tasks behind the scenes for the celebration, including flower making, keeping everyone participating in the race fed and hydrated, making sure everyone\u2019s values and traditions are honored and helping the day go as smooth as possible, according to Jillian Baldan.<\/p>\n
St. Ubaldo Day is a \u201ctradition to look forward to,\u201d said Jillian Baldan. Everyone involved in the three saint families share a same common goal in the celebration, but there is a \u201chealthy competitive nature,\u201d said Jillian Baldan.<\/p>\n
Jillian Baldan said her favorite part of St. Ubaldo Day is \u201cseeing it through my kids\u2019 eyes and to keep it going for them.\u201d<\/p>\n
This year, Jillian Baldan\u2019s son Dominick Baldan and Sabrina Shander\u2019s daughter, Evalyn Shander will both serve as capodieci for the \u201cLa Festa dei Ceri Piccoli,\u201d the children\u2019s event.<\/p>\n
Having young children join the tradition shows the lesson and tradition of St. Ubaldo Day of \u201cdo it for those who can\u2019t and honor those who came before,\u201d said Jillian Baldan.<\/p>\n
The most important part is to keep the tradition alive, according to Sabrina Shander.<\/p>\n
Sabrina Shander said the title of La Miss gives young girls \u201csomething to strive for\u201d and stay involved in St. Ubaldo after they age out of the children\u2019s race.<\/p>\n
The title of La Miss shows woman hold an important spot in the St. Ubaldo tradition, according to Jillian Baldan.<\/p>\n
Being chosen for the role of La Miss is a \u201conce in a lifetime thing for us,\u201d said Sabrina Shander. \u201cIt is truly an honor to be elected these positions.\u201d<\/p>\n
There are people involved in St. Ubaldo Day that have been running for 26 years, and new people join in the tradition each year. Many people drive and fly in from out of town to celebrate each year, according to Sabrina Shander.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen people get a taste of it, they always want to come back,\u201d said Sabrina Shander.<\/p>\n
\u201cKeeping a welcomed community helps bring interest,\u201d said Jillian Baldan.<\/p>\n
Sabrina Shander welcome kids and teens to come forward, get involved and start St. Ubaldo Day as one of their new tradition themselves.<\/p>\n
If you are interested in joining the St. Ubaldo celebration, \u201cyou do not need to be Italian,\u201d said Sabrina Shander. \u201cWe welcome anyone with open arms.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope that it is always a place to feel welcome, uphold tradition and keep going with it.\u201d said Jillian Baldan.<\/p>\n
For more information, visit the St. Ubaldo Society website at saintubaldosociety.org<\/a> or check the Saint Ubaldo Society, Jessup, PA<\/a> Facebook group.<\/p>\n St. Ubaldo Day schedule<\/p>\n For a full schedule of St. Ubaldo Day festivities, see Page 3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A long-standing tradition celebrated in Jessup recently added something new. Jessup\u2019s St. Ubaldo Day and the Race of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198572,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[2119,201,3052,28,178,180,179,3053,3054],"class_list":["post-198571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-jessup","tag-lackawanna-county","tag-midvalley","tag-pennsylvania","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news","tag-valley-advantage","tag-valley-advantage-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198571"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198571\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198572"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}