Siena's Main Religion - The Palio!

This blog post will be a bit different; but we will tie it into the missionary work that we are doing here in Siena.

But first, a bit of history.  Siena has existed for centuries and centuries.  In medieval times, Siena was a powerful city state in its own right, rivaling those city states of Florence, Pisa, Venice, etc.  During the 1400 and 1500's, the various city states aligned themselves with either the powers of the Catholic church of Rome, or with the secular kings and rulers of the region.  Florence aligned itself with the church, while Siena threw its might behind the secular leaders.  (As an aside, when the papists in Florence gained power, Dante Alighieri, the author of The Divine Comedy and a Florentine who belonged to the party supporting the secular leaders, was exiled from his beloved Florence.  He spent his last years roaming the Tuscany, and spent some time in Siena.)

During these medieval times, Siena organized itself in various neighborhoods of the city, called "contrade", and each contrada had its own organization, its own elected officials, and its own unique character.  This organization was required for many things, one of which being to organize the people of each contrada into militia or armies that, upon a call from the leaders of the city, would rally together to fight off the invading armies from Florence or Pisa, or to quell some rebellion or uprising in the smaller cities that Siena kept under its control.

Throughout Siena's history there have been any number of contrada.  But over the past hundred years or so, the contrade have melded into seventeen in number, well-organized and clearly in control of the operations within the confines of its own neighborhood.  Each contrada has its own church, its own social clubs, and its own patron saint.  It also has its own museum dedicated to displaying the silk banners (palio) that the contrada has won over the last 600 years.

The entrance of the "Palio" carried by four BIG white oxen

A new silk masterpiece is painted by a lucky artist for each Palio

A symbol and flag represent each contrada.  The seventeen contrade of Siena are as follows: Goose (Oca); She-wolf (Lupa); Dragon (Drago); Snail (Chiocciola); Porcupine (Istrice); Panther (Pantera); Unicorn (Leocorno); Seashell (Nicchio); Eagle (Aquila); Little Owl (Civetta); Wave (Onda); Tower (Torre); Tortoise (Tartuca); Caterpillar (Bruco); Giraffe (Giraffa); Forest (Selva); and Ram (Montone).

The flag of Drago (Dragon), the winner of this year's race

Selva (Forest) on the left and Oca (Goose) on the right

Civetta (Little Owl)

Onda (Wave)

While there are 17 contrade, only 10 can participate in the horserace of the Palio.  (Although they used to let all 17 run horses in the race, that was just too many, and there were too many accidents and injuries.) There are two races each year, one on July 2, and one on August 16.  Both are centered loosely on religious themes, each claiming to be run in honor of the Madonna, the mother of Christ.  Each horse is actually taken into the contrada's church before the race to receive a blessing from the parish priest.

Needless to say, this grand cultural event attracts all the inhabitants of Siena, plus thousands of tourists from all of Italy and throughout the world.  The celebrations last for weeks, with trials run the days preceding the actual race.  The famous shell-shaped Campo is transformed into a racetrack, where the city hauls in massive amounts of dirt and sand to create the setting for this spectacular.

This is what the Campo looked like on a rainy day in May.  This was taken
when we climbed the tower with Kara and Chris.

But before the actual race (which involves only three trips around the track and consumes less that 2 minutes), there is much pomp and circumstance, and months of preparation by all 17 contrade.  Costumes and gallantry reign, and there are drummers and buglers, men in armor, and flag carriers and throwers that make any Super Bowl half time show look lame in comparison.

The flag bearers all march with their contrada to the Duomo,
where they perform their flag-twirling and throwing skills

High in the air they go!  And they catch them!

Drago entering the Piazza del Duomo

They perform for the Bishop of Siena, who waves from his window

Then they all march through the medieval streets of the city towards the Campo

Flags from everywhere!

And armored men

Everyone heading down the narrow streets to enter the Campo for the big event

So enjoy a few of the hundreds of photos we shot during these days of celebration in our lovely town of Siena.

The crowds gather, and the children from each contrada in the stands
wearing their colors with pride!

Sisters Andromidas and Roth enjoying the festivities!

Elders Axson and Reese watching the parade.
Elder Axson always has a great view from up there!

A packed piazza

Our missionaries and members gather for a family home evening
event on Monday to attend the preliminary trials

Italy's Carabinari (special police) perform on their horses

The jockeys and horses entering the Campo

They ride bareback; only a bridle and a whip

Getting ready

Running the race, which lasts about 90 seconds
Three laps around the Campo

The flags of all the Contrade

And the race is over, and everyone pours out onto the city streets
to celebrate or commiserate 

While the three days of trials and the final race are a fun and unique experience that we wouldn't miss, the reality is that the Palio, including the workings of each contrada, sadly represent the true religion of many of the Senese people.  They live and die for their contrada and the two annual Palio races.  Everything else, including their religious beliefs, become subservient to their fanaticism for this tradition.  This makes missionary work even harder here in Siena.

But we had some missionary experiences while we were taking in the events.  As you can see, we try to dress as missionaries whenever we can, and we wear our badges at all times.  So when we are in crowds as large as the ones for the Palio, we had many, many people sneak sideways glances at our tags and then whispering among themselves about who we might be.  We hear many interesting comments.

Darryl had one lady stare so intently at his badge that he used his patented move; he just took off his badge and held it out to her to read.  She came forward, read it, and then came over to talk with us.  She wanted to know where we were from, what we do, what we believe, etc.  She was a nice lady.  Unfortunately, she wasn't from Siena, but from Parma, a town about 100 miles from Siena.  Notwithstanding, we gave her a Pass Along Card and told her where the closest branch was to where she lives.  She thanked us, and melted back into the crowd.

We also had hours to spend with some of our BYU students and their Italian friends, which allowed us to make new friends and, hopefully, to spark some interest in these young people in the gospel of Christ.

While we wouldn't say that this was the best event for finding new investigators, it did allow us to soak in an event that is so important to the local people, and to learn more about their traditions and celebrations.  Our Relief Society President, Sister Feri, is a lifelong Senese, and an avid member of the Oca (Goose) contrada.  She loves the celebrations, and is a font of great knowledge about every aspect of the celebration.  She is proud that Oca has won 66 times in the event's history, the most of all the contrade.

We had a great time, and are grateful to be able to share this unique experience with you through this blog and our pictures.