Feast of Maggio of San Pellegrino

In the shadow of Monte Camera the most characteristic manifestation of the territory takes place: the raising of the Maggio. This millenary festival, one of the oldest in Europe, is renewed in the village of San Pellegrino the night between 30 April and 1 May. The legend tells of a miraculous event that occurred in the year 1004, when near the village, then called Castro Contranense, two pilgrims died, overwhelmed by torrential rains, who the night before the community castellana had refused hospitality. Thanks to a dream, the following morning the bodies of the two travelers were found and the stick of the older man, of seasoned poplar, was found full of shoots and that had flowered.

The bodies of the two pilgrims were transported to the village with a cart pulled by oxen, but at the current parish church of S. Pellegrino, the animals refused to continue the journey.

For almost a thousand years, every 30 April, the inhabitants of San Pellegrino, in memory of the dead pilgrims and the miraculously flowering stick, hoist a large poplar tree in the center of the village using ropes and stairs.

At the end of the evening and religious ceremony, a select group of people go to a secret place,, where the poplar may be cut down. Upon arrival at the chosen place, with the use of a rope, axes and the strength of the workers arms, the poplar is cut down and loaded onto an agricultural wagon called a steer. Along with it is also loaded another smaller poplar that will act as a flowery tip of the Pellegrino's stick. Having done this, the people transport the steer to the gates of the town from where, at the sound of the bells and the burst of fireworks, there is an exciting race up to the square where the tree will be planted. Once the "sprint" of the steer is over, the poplars are laid down on the ground and, with the help of axes, are deprived of the leaves, branches and bark. While some workers are engaged in the fundamental phase of the joining of the big poplar with the smaller one, others dig with shovels and picks the hole in which the base of the tree will be inserted. At this point the most delicate and exciting part of the whole party begins, that of the lifting. In the most absolute silence, so that one can hear the orders of the Master, the workers begin to lift the tree through a precise system of stairs and ropes. The tree begins its slow climb to the sky, one can feel the ropes stretch and the stairs creak under the effort, but in the end the flowery tip of poplar tree stands out majestic again among the stars of San Pellegrino.

In the first days of April each year the workers plant new young poplars, respecting the nature that for a thousand years gives them the joy of such an intense ritual.