Palio del Casale

Donkey race in Camposano - National Competition

The exciting ride on donkeys, which takes place from years Camposano in the province of Naples.

The story I want to tell begins right here, in Camposano, the second Sunday in May of 1768, when the entire population of the house gathered in the main square to celebrate the longed-for independence, won just last year after a long fight duration decades, from the nearby town of Nola. Celebrations were organized from morning to evening for three days, with bonfires, banquets, music and games of all sorts. Such was the fervor for the conquest of autonomy and freedom that even the inhabitants of the neighboring houses 15 revelers flocked to the doors of Camposano. Many came on the back of donkeys, always docile companions of the peasants toiling in the fields. Some young people among the bystanders saw a young girl, remaining struck: his name was Josephine, and she was the prettiest among the girls of the house of Camposano. He was born immediately a dispute among the claimants in order to determine the order in order to declare the girl. The dispute between the young was so turned on that soon the crowd gathered around the suitors, intent on establishing the rules of any game at random, and the winner would then override the other to present the beautiful Josephine. It is said that, overlooking the sharecropper's house watching the dispute, which was a lot of fun.

Realizing the impossibility on the part of young people raggiundere an agreement, decided to approach the crowd of people, taking the word: as a simple count would not have made any honor to the winner nor homage to the girl, he proposed a game of cunning, skill, and why not, luck, or a race with donkeys. Enthusiastic, accepted suitors, but the sharecropper pointed out that the only route for the unique race was the road linking the hamlet of Comiziano and to Camposano, which fell in the properties of the director Giulio Mastrilli It was necessary, therefore, to ask the nobleman permission to compete on its possessions. For this reason, the sharecropper and the suitors made their way to the country house in the aristocratic way Capuua. Once delivered, the sharecropper knocked on the door and presented himself to the noble front facing from the main terrace of the house, explained the reasons for the visit. The noble, always a lover of women, he was very amused, and the sharecropper named the starter of the race, gave a favorable opinion.

So it was that the young, with the help of the starter, gave birth to the race and ran immediately to their donkeys tied to a pole nearby and laid down a few simple rules, ran in the race, riding in their fur animals, incited from the crowd intrigued and amused. That year the harvest was particularly abundant, so it was decided the following year to celebrate the independence of the farmhouse and the fruitfulness of the earth by organizing a race with donkeys preceded by a procession of young people, led by a different girl every year in marriageable age, bearing in his hands a basket full of fruits and vegetables as a symbol of abundance and fertility of hope. Through oral testimony has come down to us the story of this unusual story. The cultural association of Isis Camposano, with the purpose of bringing to light the traditions and culture of our ancestors, this year once again the exciting prize of the house.