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The story of Little Italy’s Feast of San Gennaro is the story of how Italian immigrants became American
The story of Little Italy’s Feast of San Gennaro is the story of how Italian immigrants became American. Originally published by The Conversation.
By Clare Whitton, PhD Candidate in Medieval History, University of Oxford · 2026-09-17T12:35:27.396Z
Over the past century, New York City's Feast of San Gennaro has grown from a one day, parochial affair into an 11 day event that draws more than a million visitors. Spencer Platt/Getty Images For two weeks in September, everyone wants to be Italian – at least judging by the crowds at the annual Feast of San Gennaro https://sangennaronyc.org/ in New York City’s Little Italy. Founded in 1926, the largest and longest running Italian festival in the United States celebrates its 100th anniversary this year, with locals and tourists alike descending upon Mulberry Street in Manhattan to celebrate Italian American culture. To be sure, there’s plenty that’s commercialized: Frank Sinatra impersonators croon “New York, New York,” while vendors hawk shirts with quotes from “The Godfather” and “The Sopranos” at astronomical prices. Classic Italian American fare like chicken parm subs and sausage and peppers fly off food carts. And yet in my work as a medievalist https://www.history.ox.ac.uk/people/clare whitton , I’ve explored how this festival champions traditions that go back thousands of years. If anything, the fact that centuries old rituals coexist with sweet Italian sausages and big, floppy pizza slices speaks to a lengthy, strenuous and beautiful process of cultural assimilation. From the Bay of Naples to Little Italy Between 1881 and 1920, over 4.5 million Italians https://www.routledge.com/The Routledge History of Italian Americans/Connell Pugliese/p/book/9780367230937 immigrated to America. Thousands, most of whom hailed from southern Italy, settled on Manhattan’s Lower East Side to form what became Little Italy https://www.digitalgreensboro.org/record/15655?p=%28+%28subject%3A%28cultural+%2B+identity%29%29%29&v=pdf . These “ huddled masses https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46550/the new colossus ” faced all sorts of difficulties: overcrowded tenements, trouble finding work, racial discrimination and suspicion of their southern Italian Catholic practices https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230115323 4 , particularly from Irish Catholics. The Italian procession of religious statues and the street parties that followed, the Irish argued, looked far too pagan and idolatrous to be considered “real” Catholicism. Irish suspicion of such practices were also shared by local Protestants. But by the early 20th century, Italian communities had grown so large that they could fund their own Italian speaking churches https://services.publishing.umich.edu/Books/T/The Ruin of Souls2 . One such parish was the Church of the Most Precious Blood https://oldcathedral.org/shrine church of the most precious blood , built in 1904 on Baxter Street. In 1926, a group of parishioners led by Alexander Tisi https://www.nydailynews.com/2010/07/17/how street it is for kings of the fair as producers get lions share from cookie cutter fests/ organized a tribute to one of the most popular holy figures from southern Italy: St. Januarius, known in Italian as San Gennaro. An early Christian bishop, Gennaro was brutally beheaded https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k314988h/f3.item outside of Naples on Sept. 19 in AD 305 on account of his faith. His execution was one of several that took place during the Diocletian Persecutions https://www.ebsco.com/research starters/religion and philosophy/diocletianic persecution , a systematic campaign against Christians by the Roman Empire. Since then, southern Italians have attributed all sorts of miracles https://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/21/world/europe/21iht naples.html to his intercession, including extinguishing the volcanic fires of Mount Vesuvius https://repositori.udl.cat/server/api/core/bitstreams/3a649f23 e6d4 473a 8147 2e7f84cb3860/content in 1631. He is also seen as something of a prophet. Since at least 1389 https://www.routledge.com/The Natural History of a Neapolitan Miracle The Secret of San Gennaros Blood/deCeglia/p/book/9781032442617 , two vials purportedly containing the saint’s blood https://theconversation.com/what makes religious relics like pieces of the true cross and hair of saints sacred to christians 181699 have been venerated in Naples because of their inexplicable ability to liquefy https://www.jstor.org/stable/1479851 on his feast days. The liquefaction has long been interpreted https://italoamericano.org/curiosities san gennaro/ as a sign of the saint’s protection. On the other hand, Italians viewed the blood staying solid as the sign of a looming catastrophe. The Allied bombings of Naples in 1943 https://historiamag.com/the liberation of naples in 1943 and its dire consequences/ , for example, occurred after the blood failed to liquefy.
A Catholic cleric hoists the ampoule purportedly with the undissolved blood of San Gennaro in December 2020 at the Naples Cathedral in Naples, Italy. Marco Cantile/LightRocket via Getty Images Since the later Middle Ages, Gennaro’s feast on Sept. 19 has been one of the most important dates https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108779555.004 on Naples’ calendar. During medieval and Renaissance celebrations, pork was the meal of choice https://doi.org/10.1017/9781805432456 , with pigs often awarded to the winners of street games. Young men might wrestle a greased up pig https://brill.com/display/book/9789004251830/B9789004251830 014.xml inside the Naples Cathedral, with the victor cooking the animal for supper. The road to cultural assimilation Centuries of devotion transformed San Gennaro into a symbol of Neapolitan identity. New York’s festival was designed to preserve those traditions. That first Feast of San Gennaro in 1926 gave Italian immigrants a rare opportunity to publicly profess the cultural identity they had left behind in Italy. It began with a procession featuring a 3 foot statue of San Gennaro. Hoisted upon men’s shoulders, the saint traveled around the church and the surrounding streets. While en route, devotees tacked dollar bills to his body https://www.instagram.com/p/DWmW 2njeUZ/ , as many still do today. There was no blood relic, but there was a purported bone fragment of Gennaro’s specifically donated for the occasion. The chip of bone was placed in a circular container called a reliquary https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/R/bo25041081.html and hung around the saint’s neck. Afterward, the Italians of Little Italy gathered around plates of roasted chicken to toast to their shared heritage and traditions.
The priest of the Church of the Most Precious Blood leads a procession along Mulberry Street in New York in 2015 while holding a reliquary cross containing a bone fragment of San Gennaro’s. Andy Katz/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images The event was a big success. Just two years later, in 1928, The New York Times reported https://www.nytimes.com/1928/09/23/archives/upsets police ban on parade images justice callahan finds warren.html that thousands of ex Neapolitans were congregating for a festival that had already extended from one day to a full week. But with triumph came trouble. That same year, New York Police Commissioner Joseph Warren prohibited the procession, arguing that the dollar bills pinned to the statue represented the “ profanation of sacred religious symbols https://www.nytimes.com/1928/09/23/archives/upsets police ban on parade images justice callahan finds warren.html .” The decision was ultimately reversed by a New York Supreme Court judge, on the grounds that Warren violated the populace’s religious liberties. Warren’s attempt to suppress the procession exemplifies the sort of religious prejudices plaguing Italian communities during that period. But it was not the only form of discrimination Italians faced. The darkness of southern Italians’ skin subjected them to discrimination, birthing derogatory slurs https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/10/12/opinion/columbus day italian american racism.html like “guinea” or “swarthy.” The suspicion that Italian immigrants were prone to criminal behavior https://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article abstract/15/1/23/169598/Italy s Criminals in the United States?redirectedFrom=fulltext was reinforced by real mafia organizations https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2eCPAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover v=onepage&q&f=false , such as the infamous Black Hand. These prejudices, combined with the establishment of Italian churches and feasts, led to the belief that Italian immigrants clung too strongly to the traditions of their homeland and refused to assimilate into American culture. Non Italians join the party It was not until after World War II that outsiders no longer hesitated to participate in Italian culture and festivities.
A vendor sells sausage and peppers on Mulberry Street in New York during the 1947 Feast of San Gennaro. Bettmann/Getty Images In 1949 https://www.nytimes.com/1949/09/19/archives/gay little italy dances in street fiesta of san gennaro draws.html , local newspapers reported that thousands of people of various ethnic backgrounds attended the riotous feast, where they watched Italians dance to folk songs in the streets and symphonic bands parade through the neighborhood beneath a new innovation: colored string lights casting pops of green, white and red along the city streets. Food played a big role https://www.nytimes.com/1956/09/11/archives/food little italy feast of san gennaro provides excuse to visit.html : Stalls piled high with fresh clams, pasta and pastries promised non Italians an authentic taste of Italy. From there, attendance ballooned. In the 1960s https://www.nytimes.com/1962/09/15/archives/little italy begins san gennaro fete buses chartered booths open.html , chartered buses ushered in Italians from states as far away as Maine and Ohio. By the 1970s https://www.nytimes.com/1979/09/14/archives/san gennaro is on all weekend.html , the feast had some 3 million visitors a year. Many locals today still recall how, in the 1960s and 1970s, young men climbed greased up steel poles https://www.dnainfo.com/new york/20120917/little italy/groups want revive gambling grease pole at san gennaro fest/ set out in the street in hopes of claiming a cash prize. The oily affair was squashed over safety concerns in the 1980s. Over the years, the feast has faced its own challenges https://www.nytimes.com/1996/01/02/nyregion/for little italy group famine after the feast.html from within the Italian community. In 2007 https://nypost.com/2011/02/28/san gennaro throws no dough around/ , some inhabitants of Little Italy petitioned Mayor Michael Bloomberg to cancel the festival, citing the strain https://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/17/nyregion/neighborhood report little italy mulberry street residents grow weary living.html that tourists placed on the local neighborhood and mafia interference https://openroadmedia.com/ebook/the italians of new york/9781955835275 . In 1996, for example, 19 members of the Genovese crime family https://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/12/nyregion/19 indicted in blow to genovese mob.html were arrested for gambling, collecting dues from vendors and even stealing money off Gennaro’s statue. Nevertheless, Bloomberg declined to interfere. The event, he said https://www.nydailynews.com/2007/03/28/san gennaros a pizza ny says bloomberg/ , was a part of New York itself. No one understands this more than the organizers of this year’s feast. When discussing the plans for 2026 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLJjTHly1BQ&list=OLCvbfU0SOw0sci86fxt2mMpWhSgzn2Xw4A&index=2 , the committee declared that this event was not just an Italian festival, but a tribute to New York’s cultural melting pot. The 100th festival is dedicated to the Italian Americans who contributed to the city’s birth, an honor that arrives at a moment of controversy. Two months prior, Mayor Zohran Mamdani omitted Little Italy from a map of the city’s immigrant enclaves, sparking immediate backlash https://abc7ny.com/post/mamdani says he will change map immigrant neighborhoods backlash leaving several communities/19482161/ . While Mamdani vowed to reinsert the neighborhood, some argued https://www.thenation.com/article/society/little italy mamdani map italian immigration/ that the omission accurately reflected the dwindling number https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/13/nyregion/arthur avenue bronx little italy.html of Italians living along Mulberry Street. The controversy underscores the question fueling the centenary: How should the immigrants who built the city of New York be honored, even as the descendants of many of those immigrants have left their old neighborhoods https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/19/nyregion/little italy manhattan fire.html for different parts of the country? Perhaps the answer is this year’s grand marshal, San Gennaro himself, who continues to serve as a bridge between the children of the Italian diaspora and their forefathers, just as he did in 1926.
Clare Whitton receives funding from Blackfriars Hall, The University of Oxford.