The Food: Italian Feasts

Italian Feasts today have lost some of the purpose that they once had.  You see, the feast was originally organized for the church If your church was St. Patrick's, then the feast was celebrated on February 17th and its purpose was a fundraiser for the church. Yes, it includes lots and lots of foods, but instead of rides, you would often see men carrying a statue of the church's saint on their backs, through the streets of the feast and all the way back to the church while people put coins on the platform or dollar bills pinned to the saint.

Many anti-defamation organizations will become very angry with me, but the fact it, The Godfather is a great display of Sicilian and Italian culture, especially when it comes to the feasts in Parts I and III.  This captures the true flavor of a feast and should be seen.  Of all the movies from the mafia genere, The Godfather Triology is one I want to hold on to in order to watch over and over again, and it is the only one I will give a "pass" to (let  it off the hook clean).  

Now, naturally, feast should be fun, and they still are, with the zeppole, sausage sandwhiches, beer, wine and all that other good stuff, but today they are advertised as fairs, or "Italian Festivals", which they are, but we forget what it is for, and along with it.  You see, if they say a "church fair" it somehow seems less fun, especially since more and more people are straying from their faith in search of individualism, unfortunately, a very very large part of their culture dies with it.  Why is it sad? Well you see, in the old days, the church would take the money from the fundraisers and put it back into the community for youth, educational and sports programs.  Today (and this is by means no way representative of all church feasts) but it seems to be more of a commercial operation, and I am curious as to how much the churches actually get after all is said and done).

In any case, take the time to enjoy the feast for what it is, the last one I went to was the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Festa which included the dance of the Giglio (a 100' statue made in Italy, imported to the US, see photos and captions below).  Awards were given, history was taught, and it truly was a great slice of Italian culture which Asians, Hispanics (and even a few politicians and celebrities) enjoyed.

A live italian brass band play traditional Italian music in celebration of the Giglio.	Thank God it was not that humid... Over 100 men help carry the Giglio statue pictured left.

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