Feast of San Gennaro

The biggest and most exciting religious festival begins in New York City, America. It is 82nd annual Feast of San Gennaro started from September 10 and will be ended on September 20,2009, on the streets of the lower Manhattan neighborhood, historic little Italy.
Joseph Mattone, President of Figli di San Gennaro, Inc. said,
“This Feast of San Gennaro holds a special place in the hearts of Italian people everywhere”
He added.
“It is a festive period of faith and redemption, a time for remembrance and reconciliation, and a time for celebration. The delicious food, the free musical entertainment that reflects Italian-American culture and heritage are all there. The Feast brings the world to Little Italy and Little Italy to the world.”

San Gennaro

San Gennaro (Saint Januarius) is the patron saint of Naples, Italy. His feast day is September 19 in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. The first Feast of San Gennaro was held on September 18, 1926, by newly-arrived Neapolitan immigrants honoring the Saint who had been martyred in 305 AD. Similar festivals have also been sponsored in other U.S. cities.

The Feast of San Gennaro, originally a one-day religious commemoration, started when the first Feast in New York City took place September, 1926 when newly arrived immigrants from Naples settled along Mulberry Street in the Little Italy section of New York City to continue the tradition they had followed in Italy to celebrate San Gennaro as the Patron Saint of Naples. The immigrant families on Mulberry Street who started it all were Nappi, Vetali, Montanini and Tisi. Each one of them had a coffee house (café) on Mulberry Street between Grand and Hester Streets. They strung lengths of colored light bulbs across the street from building fire escapes and brought their business out onto the sidewalk. They erected a small chapel in the street to house the image of their patron Saint. They invited all to partake of their wares asking only that the devoted pin a small offering to the ribbon streamers that are hung from the statues apron. This money was then distributed to the needy poor of the neighborhood. In that way they felt they could do charitable works and also pay homage to their patron Saint. The festival expanded and is now an 11-day street fair beginning on the second Thursday in September in the Little Italy area of Manhattan as an annual celebration of Italian culture and the Italian-American community.

Centered on Mulberry Street, which is closed to traffic for the occasion, the festival generally features parades, street vendors, sausages, games and zeppole. The Grand Procession is held starting at 2 p.m. on the last Saturday in September immediately after a celebratory Mass at the Church of the Most Precious Blood. This is a Roman Catholic candlelit procession in which the statue of San Gennaro is carried from its permanent home in the Most Precious Blood Church through the streets of Little Italy.

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