JESSUP, Pa. — A longstanding tradition in one Lackawanna County community will not go on as planned this Memorial Day weekend. The St. Ubaldo Day Festival was canceled Thursday night.
The event honors the patron saint of Jessup's sister city, Gubbio, Italy – St. Ubaldo. Runners carry the statues of three saints through the borough as part of the festival.
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After the news made its way from Gubbio to the members of the St. Ubaldo Society in Jessup that Gubbio had canceled its festival due to COVID-19, the organization decided to follow suit and cancel the event here, too.
This is the first time in its history that the festival won't be held in either Gubbio or Jessup.
"It's pretty devastating, it's a tough pill for us to swallow. This day we wait for 364 days a year," said Michael Capellini, vice president of the St. Ubaldo Society.
"It's just a sad time," said society member Scott Hall. "We never thought we'd see the day where we'd have to cancel our Festa Dei Ceri."
The event only happens in two places in the world: here in Jessup and in Gubbio, Italy.
For many people in Jessup who have family in Gubbio, including Richard Pirrami, the festival is a day to celebrate their heritage and close ties with Jessup's sister city.
"I really feel a void in my heart that's beyond comprehension," Pirrami said.
To demonstrate how close those ties really are, we asked Capellini to call his family friend over in Gubbio.
"It's so much larger than just a tie. It's a mental tie, it's a physical tie, it's an emotional tie," he said, translating the call.
To show solidarity with its sister city, the St. Ubaldo Society is encouraging Jessup residents to put out their festival flags for the entire month of May.
The society still plans to do something, no matter how small, to commemorate the day and honor its patron saint.
"We will look forward. We'll become stronger as an organization, and depends on what we're able to do, but we're going to do something. What that something will look like will obviously depend on what restrictions are still in place come that time, and it might even just be a Zoom call.
The society says the festival in 2021 will just have to be even bigger and better.