12. The Feast of San Gennaro is Almost 100 Years Old
The Feast of San Gennaro is an annual celebration of Italian American culture and cuisine centered along Mulberry Street in Little Italy and Nolita. The festival was first celebrated in the United States in September 1926 after immigrants from Naples erected a small chapel on Mulberry Street to house an image in honor of Januarius — Gennaro in Neapolitan Italian — the patron saint of their hometown. The group consisted mainly of cafe owners who had moved to the neighborhood in the prior decades. Those who came to pray were asked to pin an offering to the ribbon streamers hanging from the statue’s apron. Money gathered from the festivity was subsequently distributed to the poor in the neighborhood.
The festival has since grown into an 11-day street fair with food vendors, carnival games, live music, and other attractions. On the last Sunday of the feast, after a celebratory mass at the Church of the Most Precious Blood, a Grand Procession takes place, during which a statue of San Gennaro is carried through the streets of Little Italy. Sausage and peppers and zeppoles are popular dishes sold by street vendors, while a cannoli-eating contest annually takes place outside the famous Ferrara Bakery & Cafe. The festival has also been immortalized in The Godfather Part III, in which Vincent Corleone assassinates Joey Zasa during the festival.
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