New addition to century-old Jessup tradition: Three women honored as St. Ubaldo Day's 'La Miss'

Victoria Valvano Hanson’s passion for St. Ubaldo Day blossomed when her grandmother took her to Gubbio, Italy, as a child to see the iconic La Festa dei Ceri in the city where it originated.

The 34-year-old mother of two hopes to pass on that same passion to a new generation of girls Saturday in Jessup as one of St. Ubaldo Day’s three inaugural “La Miss” — a new addition to a 115-year-old borough tradition that will honor three different women each year from the families of St. Ubaldo, St. Anthony (Antonio) and St. George (Giorgio).

“Strong women are in our community — brave women, beautiful women are in our community,” said Hanson, a native of Blakely’s Peckville section who now lives with her husband and children in Dalton. “If they see women starting to be more involved, they’ll be more involved, and we need both men and women in this tradition to keep it alive.”

Every year, on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend, thousands of spectators flock to the Midvalley for St. Ubaldo Day’s iconic Race of the Saints, where three teams of runners, called ceraioli, careen through the hilly streets of Jessup carrying heavy statues representing St. Ubaldo, St. Anthony and St. George. Known as “la Corsa dei Ceri,” which translates to “Race of the Candles,” the runners carry pillar-like wooden “candles” with smaller statues of their saints sitting on top of them.

Each family appoints a male capodieci, or captain, to lead the runners — a role the capodieci consider to be a lifetime honor. Beginning this year, women will receive the same recognition.

“The role of La Miss is basically to be the female version of capodieci,” Hanson said. “She basically stands by the capo the entire morning of La Festa dei Ceri.”

Representing the family of St. Anthony as La Miss Santantoniara, Hanson will join St. Ubaldo’s La Miss Santubaldara Lynn Jesuitt-Donnini and St. George’s La Miss Sangiorgiana Jeanette Acciare-Mariani, the mayor of Blakely.

The celebration of St. Ubaldo Baldassini began in Gubbio in the 12th century, and Italian immigrants brought the tradition to Jessup in 1909.

The Race of the Saints is only held in two places worldwide — Jessup and Gubbio — and as the festival continues to grow, it’s especially important to have women involved, St. Ubaldo Society President Scott Hall said.

“I think it’s something great that we added,” Hall said of La Miss.

‘It’s magical’

After spending most of her life celebrating La Festa dei Ceri, whether in Jessup or Gubbio, Hanson cried when she learned she would be the family of St. Anthony’s La Miss.

With her great-great-grandparents being from Gubbio, her late grandmother, Vivian Valvano, took her to the Italian city as a preteen, where she met her family still living in Gubbio, including seeing her great-grandparent’s home.

“That really put an impression on me, and it’s changed me ever since,” Hanson said. “I’ve created a passion for it, and it’s just in my blood.”

Her “Nonni Vivian” took her to Gubbio a handful of additional times into her teenage years. After her grandmother passed away, Hanson continued traveling to Gubbio, even studying abroad in Rome where she traveled to Gubbio every other weekend to stay with her family, making it feel like her second home.

She estimates she’s been to Gubbio to see the race 10-plus times, including traveling to Italy this month to watch it.

Hanson struggled to find words to describe the feeling of experiencing the race in Gubbio.

“The emotion and feeling of seeing it actually in Gubbio is addicting and thrilling,” she said. “It’s magical.”

The St. Ubaldo Society wants to replicate Gubbio as closely as it can in Jessup, and each year, they try to incorporate a bit more from Gubbio, said Hanson, who is the secretary of both the society and the family of St. Anthony. Her father, David Valvano, is the current president of the family of St. Anthony.

“Adding this La Miss is another step toward cementing the future and cementing it to be identical to the race (in Gubbio) and their tradition,” she said.

Hanson wants her 4-year-old daughter, Sofia, and her 1-year-old son, Lincoln, to develop the same passion and love that she has for the tradition.

She especially wants Sofia to see the role women play.

“Women are part of the history and part of the tradition as well,” Hanson said. “She can be, too, and she doesn’t just have to be behind the scenes.”

To further get women more involved with St. Ubaldo Day, Hanson is working to create a women’s auxiliary committee as a branch of the St. Ubaldo Society to create an easier avenue for women to participate.

‘Acknowledging the women’

As the first woman to ever serve as Blakely Borough’s mayor after defeating a 24-year incumbent in 2005, Acciare-Mariani is no stranger to pioneering new roles as the first La Miss for the family of St. George.

Acciare-Mariani’s involvement with St. Ubaldo Day began in 1976 when the event returned to Jessup after stopping for just over two decades, though her earliest St. Ubaldo memory was sitting on her father’s shoulders as a toddler to watch the festivities right before the hiatus in 1952.

Acciare-Mariani, 75, was involved in Jessup’s centennial in 1976 while she was still living in the borough and was asked to head the women of St. George, which her family had been involved with prior to the hiatus. She served as an officer over the years and was active with their fundraising.

“We never even knew about (La Miss) years ago,” she said. “We just did what we wanted to do to succeed.”

With family from Gubbio, Acciare-Mariani and her husband, Mario Mariani, have traveled to the city about 10 times since 1978.

Her husband was a St. George capodieci in the 1980s, and he received the honor of being named primo capitano, or the first captain who leads all three ceri, in 2016. Her stepson, Mark Mariani, also became capodieci for St. George in 2003.

When selecting its first La Miss, the family of St. George looked for longevity, Acciare-Mariani said.

Just like in Italy, women play an important role in supporting the men, she said, commending organizers for bringing La Miss to Jessup.

“If they created this position, a La Miss position, for those women who are essential for the success of their saint, well, then I feel that they deserve the recognition,” she said. “This is a way of acknowledging the women, and they should be acknowledged.”

Acciare-Mariani considers it an honor to be named the first La Miss for St. George, and she hopes to showcase the importance of a strong work ethic.

“Any organization that you belong to, whether it be a St. Ubaldo organization or anything, before you commit yourself to that organization, you have to know that you must do what’s best for it,” she said. “You don’t just come around once a year. That’s not the way it works. You must be there, and you must be supportive at all times.”

‘The camaraderie’

Jesuitt-Donnini fought back tears as she recalled sitting in front of her late “Auntie Sue” Pezak’s house on Hill Street as a child with her cousins to watch St. Ubaldo festivities. Her uncle and cousin still live at the Hill Street homestead, she said.

She remembered the sound of bugles waking her up at the crack of dawn and running outside to see what was happening, and as the day continued on, watching the race.

“I hope that the generations today embrace that and don’t forget about those special moments because they come so quickly, and they’re gone,” she said. “It’s so good to hold those memories.”

A Peckville native with family in Jessup, Jesuitt-Donnini, 56, said it took time for it to sink in that she was named the family of St. Ubaldo’s La Miss. Last year, her husband, Jesse Donnini, was capodieci for St. Ubaldo.

Like capodiece, La Miss is a once-in-a-lifetime honor, she said.

“I’m very excited. I’m extremely honored,” she said. “The two other women, Victoria and Jeanette, are just amazing people. They’ve brought so much to each of their families between St. Anthony and St. George that standing next to them — highly respected women — is such a good feeling.”

It’s a great feeling to be part of something bigger so much bigger than one person, she said.

“The camaraderie, the cohesiveness of each family, they bring so much energy,” she said.

Like her fellow La Miss, she hopes the newfound tradition in Jessup will prompt more women to get involved.

“It is about the men, too, but now it’s about the women coming together, supporting each other, supporting their team, showing that representation,” she said.

St. Ubaldo festivities, whether in Gubbio or Jessup, are about passion, she said.

“It doesn’t even matter what background you come from, and I think that’s what’s important,” Jesuitt-Donnini said. “There are people from every background that attend this venue.”

She hopes the future La Miss will continue that same passion, embracing the day and keeping the spirit alive.

“This is so much bigger than one person or two people or three people,” Jesuitt-Donnini said. “It takes a whole community to come together to do this.”