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The reasons for the twinship  |  The emigration and the origin of the city |  The day of St.Ubaldo and the Festa dei Ceri  
The "Society of St.Ubaldo" |  A new Cero of St. Ubaldo   







Visit the official web site of the Society of St.Ubaldo in Jessup






 The reasons for the twinship
An actual real twinship does not exist between our city and that of Jessup, Pennsylvania (USA), but Gubbio has ties with this pleasant city with "chromosomes" of many eugubinians who emigrated at the end of 1800 and the beginning of 1900, in search of occupation. This is enough reason to regard their relationship as an official twinship!
The "Festa dei Ceri" which takes place in honour of St. Ubaldo, every year, in the month of May is enough proof of this!
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 The emigration and the origin of the city
Jessup is situated in the american state of Pennsylvania (PA) and has about 5000 inhabitants. It is distant 13 Km from Scranton and 120 miles from New York.
The presence of rich coal mines in the area caused the growth and colonization of the city in the half of the eighteenth century.
The industrial revolution and the two world wars increased the demand for coal. Therefore Jessup exported large quantities of anthracite coal of excellent quality.
The great development of the mines towards 1890 caused the increase of immigration coming especially from the eastern parts of Europe. Towards the end or the 800's and the beginning of the 900's, the emigration followed also from Italy. The immigrants arrived from Gubbio, Gualdo Tadino, Scheggia and Sassoferrato.
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 The day of St.Ubaldo and the Festa dei Ceri
The "St.Ubaldo Day" is the day of the Festa dei Ceri in Jessup!

In 1911 the many eugubinian immigrants present in Jessup, without doubt to win their nostalgia of their far hometown and to demonstrate their great love for Gubbio, improvised a “Festa dei Ceri”.

The exhibition was repeated every year until 1952!
Then there were problems because of the Americal participation in the Corean war. The tradition was interrupted, but started off again in 1976.
There was another interruption in the '90s: the festa took place only in 1991 and 1992, but now the tradition continues regularly!

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 The "Society of St.Ubaldo"
It is the association which is formed by residents of Jessup and the surrounding cities or by those people who have direct ties with Gubbio. The seat is in Jessup, Pennsylvania (USA).

P.O. Box 76
Jessup, PA 18434
e-mail:
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 A new Cero of St. Ubaldo
In Jessup the shape of the Cero of St. Ubaldo was, for the whole of the twentieth century, exactly identical to that of the other two Ceri.
For this reason, on the request of the "Saint Ubaldo Society" and of our Circle of the area of Jessup, our "Eugubini in the world" Society made a new Cero of St. Ubaldo, similar to the Cero of Gubbio.
The Cero has very resistant characteristics in order to bear the dangers of the race. Because of electric wires which pass through the town of Jessup, the cero could not be constructed higher than 7 feet.
The Cero was presented in Gubbio on the 9th May 2002 and after being blessed in the Basilica of St. Ubaldo it left Italy on the 15th May from Milan Malpensa at 11.00 and arrived at the Kennedy airport in New York at 8.00 p.m. (in this way it made its journey at the same time as the Corsa of the Ceri!).
The Cero was realized by members thanks to the collaboration of worthy artisans such as Mario Trento Merli, who realized the wooden structure, Lorenzo Rampini, who made the iron parts, and the where the Principal Prof. Giovanni Meli disposed of the structures, the teachers (the professors Francesco Scalici, Francesco Pannacci and Giovanni Pascolini) and many other better students to make the painting of the cero.
The cero was constructed perfectly on a scale of (1:0,54) using a measurement of the Cero Grande of St. Ubaldo, which Dr. Vincenzo Ambrogi kindly put at disposition.
At the moment of the arrival of the Cero, Thomas J. Fiorelli wrote to us, saying: "The Cero is now in Jessup! It is more beautiful than we can possibly imagine! Thank you to S. Ubaldo for making all of this possible".

The new Cero raced in the Festa of the 25th May 2002.
From the USA a comment on the Festa of the Ceri 2002: "It was a great day in Jessup.
All of the thousands of people who participated to the festa felt a great admiration for the magnificent Ceri, especially for the new Cero of S. Ubaldo. The Ceri moved gracefully through the streets. Unfortunately the Cero of St. Giorgio fell. We thank St. Ubaldo that no one was hurt!".
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