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We have a cultural exhibit area dedicated every year to different regional cultures of Italy,with costumes and traditions, handcrafts and tourism: this year our guest will be Lombardy.There is a bocce tournament; there’s a parade, and a stage which is completely dedicated to children. We have Italian movies.We have a section dedicated to genealogy researches. And of course, food and Italian cuisine play a very important role during all the three days of the event.
We have a protected area right on the water –called aLagoon- into Lake Michigan and we have four gondolas.We also have an exhibition about opera music, and another one with pictures of Italians who came to Milwaukee long time ago, which is a beautiful display. We even have a replica of the Roman Colosseo!
Every year, literally hundreds of festival and feasts celebrate Italy all over the United States: either in big cities and in small towns, in probably every State there’s at least one event like this. What’s the meaning of this incredible series of yearly events, with always thousands and thousands of people, not necessarily all of Italian heritage?
I have been in Italy a number of times, and every time I go to Sicily. I have seen festas through all Italy, it seems that every town has its own festa. This has a lot to do with religion: every room in my house had a picture of San Rocco –my mother’sSaint, she was from Bari in Puglia, while my father was from Sicily: every Italian immigrants did so, and was and still is very proud about the adoration for his or her saints, as a way to show the love for their community: so this is why there are many festivals and feasts around the United States like “FestaItaliana”. For the Italians, even if they are gone from Italy, Italy is not gone from them.
this is why there are many festivals and feasts around the United States like “FestaItaliana”. For the Italians, even if they are gone from Italy, Italy is not gone from them.
I also enjoy San Gennaro Feast in the original Little Italy in New York, because of my family name which originally was Gennaro and became Jennaro in 1921, when in a commercial a painter who had to write my grandfather’s family name draw a G that seemed like a J: from that point we were the only Gennaro with a J.