Christmas at Unibo

"This year, my Christmas greetings will be different from previous ones. I sincerely wish to all of you to share the exceptional value of our great community with your loved ones. I'll leave you to the cheerful Christmas songs recorded by our Collegium Musicum in the Cortile D'Ercole (Palazzo Poggi)".

2020 closes with Rector Francesco Ubertini's Christmas greetings and a musical tribute to the Unibo community made by the Collegium Musicum Almae Matris.

Dear all,
This year, my Christmas greetings will be different from previous ones. I wish to send you my love, appreciation, gratefulness and many other feelings that have been keeping us together during this entire year, eventually making our professional and private lives closer.

I wish that every one of us could feel the importance of being part of an institution that has shown strength and protected us during the hardest months of the pandemic, ultimately enabling us to give our best, resist and keep intact the thread that gives a reason to our work and connects us daily. We did what we could: we have never backed down before our responsibilities, we have worked for one another.

Today, we can state that the University managed to function properly amidst hardships by giving its best. We have to be proud of this result.

The upcoming festive days shall bring a well-deserved period of rest and tranquility for you to share with your next of kin. There is no point in hiding this, we know it too well: the tranquillity we seek will never be absolute. We still need to be cautious, responsible and mindful, not only for our sake but for the sake of the society we belong to, of our friends, colleague and loved ones.

What we do today, shall bear results in future months and years: this is the reason that must lead us. These holidays will be difficult, but they will also provide a solid foundation for happier ones.

My wish for everyone is to fully harness what we learned, by keeping in mind that a renovated energy and proudness of being part of the Alma Mater will be with us again next year. I sincerely wish to all of you to share the exceptional value of our great community with your loved ones.

I'll leave you to the cheerful Christmas songs recorded by our Collegium Musicum in the Cortile D'Ercole (Palazzo Poggi).

Palazzo Poggi with its dashing Christmas lights provides a charming framework to the chorus singers led by Enrico Lombardi in their performance of some Christmas classics: Adeste Fideles, an ancient song in Latin whose origins are lost in the centuries; Deck the Hall, a song composed in the late 1800s that with its rhymes reminds us of the joy of Christmas decorations; and lastly, Stille Nacht, the most widely translated and largely loved Christmas song, performed in an exclusive arrangement by Enrico Lombardi for the Collegium Musicum.