Cultural Encounters: For More Than Just the Food

Before I left Manhattan on Monday night, I decided to make a stop at the Feast of San Gennaro. As I neared the festival, music blared, roads were closed and lining the streets were green, red, and white colored tents hanging with signs promising the best cannoli, zeppole or sausage and pepper sandwich in the world. Even if they happened not to be the best, their smell filled the air and they were enticing nonetheless. Stretching down several blocks, the Feast of San Gennaro seemed to be in full swing as I turned to walk down Mulberry Street.

However, despite how festive the atmosphere seemed, certain elements of the event were unquestionably commercialized and no doubt different from the tradition that has been present in the Little Italy area for the past eighty-four years. Now an eleven-day spectacle, the Feast was once a locally run affair, in which many local families would set up handmade stands, advertising their specialty food, whether it be canolis or sausages, with children setting up and hawking passersby into playing their coin games. At a time, in which the food was a means, not an end, locals and visitors alike gathered to join in the excitement.

Since my grandparents, great-grandparents, and even great-great grandparents have lived in the Mulberry Street area since the turn of the last century, I can only imagine the sense of community and celebration that once spread throughout the neighborhood during the festival which stretched even further downtown than it does today. While I certainly enjoy a good celebration of my (half) Italian heritage, and the Feast today was filled with great food, I am left to imagine (and listen to stories retold by my grandparents) of the time when the Feast of San Gennaro was for more than just the food.