Page 6 - Italian-American Herald - September 2024

6 ITALIANAMERICANHERALD.COM | SEPTEMBER2024 CULTURE
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Manhattan’s Little Italy. When large numbers of Italian immigrants from Naples settled in New York they maintained much of their cultural heritage, including the feast honoring San Gennaro. The first event held was a one-day religious commemoration which
has since evolved into a multi-day festival organized and run by people from outside the neighborhood.
Centered on Mulberry Street and also along Hester Street and Grand Street, which is closed to traffic for the occasion, the festival features a variety of Italian foods as games, parades, and other such attractions. The Grand Procession is held on the last Saturday of the feast, immediately after a celebratory Mass at the Church of the Most Precious Blood. There is also a 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.
In 1980, Vincent Palmisano brought the Feast of San Gennaro to Las Vegas for the first time. From 1986 to 2016, Tony Sacca, a longtime Vegas entertainer, began hosting and entertaining for the event along with other big celebrities from the strip. The festival is now held twice a year, in the spring and fall.
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Another feast was founded by Jimmy Kimmel, Adam Carolla and Doug DeLuca
in 2002 which takes place in Los Angeles. In 2011, Hampton Bays began their San Gennaro Festival which is now the largest one on Long Island. A Feast of San Gennaro was also established in Belmar, N.J., in 2012.
The Mascio family started a feast in
honor of San Gennaro when they settled in Seattle along with many other Italians. They formed a San Gennaro Foundation in 2013. The three-day festival now takes place in Georgetown, Washington the second week of September.
It should not come as a surprise that San Gennaro has many celebrants in the U.S. Between 1904 and 1932 approximately 93,000 passports were issued by the Questura of Napoli for those in the region who were emigrating. Numerous others followed in the following decades. The patron saint of Naples is carried in their hearts and prayers. Wherever he is celebrated they will call out Viva San Gennaro and pray for the “Miracle of the Blood.” IAH
*Note: This information was provided by the site Catholic Online at www.catholic.org.
The statue of San Gennaro’s with the ampoule of his blood is carried through the streets of Naples. | WIKIPEDIA
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