Italian-American Herald - January 2024

FAMILY HISTORY
Great-great-grandfather started his new life as a 12-year-old stowaway
PAGE 3
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Bill Ronayne’s books, lectures and museum dedicated to the Lanza legacy
By Ken Mammarella
Bill Ronayne was just 7 when he became a fan of Mario Lanza, the tenor who was born in South Philadelphia in 1921 and made the cover of Time in 1951, when he starred in “The Great Caruso.”
That fandom continues – even more so – today, with Ronayne semiretired and devoted to Lanza as president of the Mario Lanza Institute and Museum in Philadelphia, which looks forward in supporting the education of young opera singers and looks backward in maintaining the legacy of the singer.
“He’s still a force to be reckoned with. His star is shining bright,” Ronayne said of Lanza, who died in Italy in 1959. He influenced singers from Roy Orbison to Elvis Presley (“Elvis was a major-league fan, and if you go into the Graceland media room, you’ll see
See RONAYNE - page 8
Look both ways
January named for Roman god who saw future
as well as past
By Jeanne Outlaw-Cannavo
January, or gennaio in Italian, is the first month of the year and is observed as a time of new beginnings as we also reflect on the previous year. The month is named for the Roman god Janus, who is depicted with two faces so he could view both the future and the past.
Today we all use the
Gregorian calendar to mark
the passing days and months
with the exception of the
four countries of Afghanistan,
Ethiopia and Nepal. Prior to
the reign of Julius Caesar, the
calendar in use was based on a
lunar year. When Caesar came
into power this calendar was
three months ahead of the solar
year. Working with the astronomer
Sosigenes Caesar he ordered a new
calendar consisting of 12 months which
had a cycle of three years of 365 days,
followed by a year of 366 days (leap year).
When first implemented, the “Julian Calendar”
also moved the beginning of the year from March 1
to Jan. 1. This calendar was then replaced in 1582 on
the order of Pope Gregory XIII. It restored the calendar to the seasonal dates of 325 CE, an adjustment of 10 days.
About a century after the beginning of the Roman empire, the
See JANUARY - page 4
Group celebrates 10th Feast of Seven Fishes in Norristown
By Al DeGennaro
The Feast of Seven Fishes is a celebrated Italian-American tradition that started in this country with the wave of immigration from Southern Italy to the United States
in the early 1900s. There are numerous theories about how or why Italian
Americans came to identify “seven” for the celebration of the Feast (seven sacraments, seven hills of Rome, and seven virtues, to name a few). Regardless of the origin and where the number “seven” came from, the Feast has become a staple of many Italian-
See NORRISTOWN - page 7
Vol. 11 / No. 1