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Feste: Italian-American Festivals
| Article
# : |
15238 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
8 / 1989 |
4,656 Words |
| Author
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Emma S. Rocco
Emma S. Rocco is an associate professor of music at Penn State
University in Monaca |
Travelling in steerage, the Italians came to American shores, a part of the huddled masses immortalized by Emma Lazarus in the poem The New Colossus. Clutching their meager worldly goods in their sacchetti, parcels often odd in shape and size, and valigi, suitcases whose durability was sometimes reinforced by twine or rope, they entered the gates of Ellis Island. Like so many other immigrants, they disembarked with fear and trepidation, some of them ill, but all fiercely determined to build a better life than they had had in the poverty-stricken "deep" South, the Mezzogiorno.
The meridionali, as southern Italians were often called, also brought with them a rich history of religious and civic festivals. For hundreds of years, these feste offered the only escape from the misery of daily existence that had been imposed upon them by myriad negative social, political, religious, and geographic forces. Since their descendants do, in fact, have a better life in America than did their immigrant forebears, the feste serve now to preserve Italian identity. An awareness of the difficult environment and history in which these festivals developed adds depth to the picture of Italian heritage provided by their current traditions.
The Mezzogiorno, where the standard of living was appreciably lower than that of northern Italy, includes Sicily, Sardinia, Calabria, Apulia, Basilicata, Campainia, Abruzzi, Molise, and the part of Lazio that is south of Rome. These regions of Italy degenerated into feudalism and dire poverty following the end of the benevolent rule of the Normans under Frederick II, the Holy Roman Emperor, in the thirteenth century. By the latter part of the nineteenth century the starkness of living became such that the common
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