| Photo by Efrem Zanchettin |
It is the day of the feast of San Secondo and, as tradition dictates, the Palio is preparing to pay homage to the Patron Saint of the city on the first Tuesday of May. There are several events scheduled on a day which, weather permitting, will see the Palio Offering at the Collegiate taking place in the morning and in the afternoon the activity dedicated to children, organized by the College of Rectors, “Pony…in Palio”. All enhanced by the presence of the College of Rectors stall in Piazza San Secondo since the morning.
The program will open, as usual, with the performance of the ASTA flag-waving group scheduled for 11.00 in Piazza San Secondo. At the end, around 11.15 am, it will be the turn of the procession which, opened by the Flag-waving and Musical Groups of Borgo Santa Maria Nuova, winner of the 2023 Palio, starting from Piazza Roma, will accompany the twenty-one Rectors, together with the banners of the Rioni, Borghi and Municipalities, to twenty-one pairs of figures and about a hundred children, up to Piazza San Secondo. At 11.35 am the whole procession will enter the Church of the Saint where the most important and solemn moment of the celebrations of the patronal feasts, the “Bordel Mass”, will be staged. Before the “Gloria in excelsis deo” the sumptuous procession will enter the Church, made up of the civil authorities and the banners and Rectors of the 21 brothers, carrying the Palio to offer to the Patron. It is the mayor, at the moment of the offertory, who delivers the Palio into the hands of the celebrating priest, who seals for the more prosaic a sort of truce between civil and ecclesiastical power.
The Palio offer was established around 1369 by Giovanni II Paleologo, then lord of Asti, for devotional purposes, with the commitment to make it perpetual and binding for all his successors; this rite had to take place on the day of San Secondo, and its cost was totally borne by the Signoria as were all the other expenses incurred for the titular Feast and for the Race. The prize for the Offering was given to the Municipality, which then took care of physically and solemnly delivering it to the church of the Saint.
The Municipality was always very careful to demand respect for this custom from all of Palaeologus’ successors, until the Napoleonic government, at the beginning of the nineteenth century, forced it to bear the expense itself.
At the end of the ceremony, a representation of the civil and ecclesiastical authorities with the youngest representative of the order of lawyers, descends into the crypt of the Saint for the usual offering of oils for the perpetual votive lamp, which shines in the crypt where the relics of the saint are kept. Saint in a sealed silver case.
Once the sacred rite is over, the procession exits onto the Piazza del Santo, where, following an ancient tradition, the “soup of the poor” is served, that is, a dish of hot soup served free of charge to the people to give even the less well-off the opportunity to celebrate the Saint.
After lunch, at 4.00 pm, again in Piazza San Secondo, “Pony in…Palio” will begin, an initiative organized by the College of Rectors aimed at the little ones who will be able to ride some ponies in the square wearing the colors of the districts, villages and Municipalities of the Palio.
Any changes to the program, due to the persistence of bad weather, will be announced on our social channels.
