Feast of San Gennaro

Speaker: Chuck Rolando (Standard American accent)

The Feast of San Gennaro is New York’s oldest and most vibrant annual street festival and it brings over a million people to Little Italy. This year is the 80th edition and it will run from 13th to 23rd September.

THE NEAPOLITAN CONNECTION

The festival is a celebration of all things Italian, especially food and music. It honors the Miracle of San Gennaro, the Patron Saint of Naples. Immigrants from Naples organised the first festival here in 1926. Today priests from The Most Precious Blood Church parade its statue of Saint Gennaro through Little Italy in three separate processions. The closing parade features spectacular floats and marching bands.
The streets, decorated in red, white and green streamers, fill with the smell of sizzling Italian sausages. Stalls sell zeppole and cannoli, and other Italian specialties like tiramisu and strawberries dipped in chocolate.

MAMMA MIA!

Little Italy is famous for its restaurants and each restaurant brings tables out onto the street, where wonderful dishes of pasta are displayed. Vendors sell t-shirts with unforgettable slogans like ‘Life’s Too Short NOT To Be Italian!’ There are carnival games for the children, a Ferris wheel and, last but not least, Italian ice cream. On Friday 15th there’s the Annual Cannoli-eating Contest. The person who eats the most cannoli in six minutes will become world champion.