San Gennaro Feast

The Annual Feast of San Gennaro will be held in LITTLE ITALY  for 11 days from Thursday, September 15, through Sunday, September 25, 2016, on the streets of historic Little Italy, the lower Manhattan neighborhood which served as the first home in America for hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants who came here seeking to improve their lives beginning in the early part of the 20th century.

 The annual Feast of San Gennaro turns 90 this year — and to celebrate, it will be broadcast live for the first time in its Italian motherland. 

Organizers of the beloved neighborhood tradition are setting up cameras throughout the streets of Little Italy to document all 10 days of festivities honoring the patron saint of Naples for online viewers in Italy — a gesture unifying them with those observing the saint’s feast day overseas, according to an organizer.

The beloved Feast of San Gennaro is an annual celebration of the Patron Saint of Naples. The first Feast in New York City took place on September 19, 1926 when newly arrived immigrants from Naples settled along Mulberry Street in the Little Italy section of New York City and decided to continue the tradition they had followed in Italy to celebrate the day in 305 A.D. when Saint Gennaro was martyred for the faith.

Since then, the Feast has grown from a one-day street festival to a gala 11-day event. On September 19 during each Feast, a Religious Procession, including the Statue of San Gennaro, winds along the length of Mulberry and Mott Streets, between Canal and Houston Streets. The procession begins immediately following a Celebratory Mass held at the Most Precious Blood Church on Mulberry Street, the National Shrine of San Gennaro.