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On the Shoulders of Strong Men: Processions Recall Old World Heritage among Italian Americans
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11173 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1993 |
2,513 Words |
| Author
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Angelo Costanzo
Angelo Costanzo is professor of English at Shippensburg
University. He specializes in slave narrative biography. A
related article, "Living Under Mongibello," appeared in the
May 1990 issue of The World & I. |
In many large American cities and small towns with sizable Italian-American populations, colorful religious spectacles occur at various times during the summer and early autumn. At first, they seem out of place in the streets of a modern, industrialized, future-oriented nation. After all, these pageants are descended from the mystery and miracle plays of medieval Europe, which taught the lessons of the faith with elaborate street theater.
When I was growing up in Pittston, situated in a coal-mining area of northeastern Pennsylvania, several Italian processions were held each year in honor of various patron saints. These feast-day events were considered holidays as important as Easter and almost as significant as Christmas.
Families outfitted themselves in new clothes for the special day, and everyone was expected to participate in the procession. Even the fathers and older sons, who ordinarily paid little attention to the formal duties of Catholic worship, would attend the solemn high mass celebrated on the saint's feast.
Because my family's house was on a street used by the procession held every October, many of our relatives from other parts of town would gather on our porch to wait for the coming of the statues depicting the Madonna in her special role of Our Lady of the Rosary.
The Bedda Madre del Rosario, or Beautiful Mother of the Rosary, is the patron saint of the hill town of Montedoro, located in the sulfur-mining district of western Sicily. Many people from the area had settled in Pittston to work in the coal mines. Their statue of the Rosario holds the Infant Jesus in its arms and is always accompanied by the figure of a kneeling Saint Joseph. Because they missed the image of their Rosario, the Sicilian immigrants raised funds to have an exact replica made of the sculpture that stood in the church at Montedoro. Specially crafted in Italy, it was shipped to Pittston in the early 1920s.
It was not unusual in the past to witness Old World traditions being observed by the immigrants and their first-generation families living in the Italian enclaves of American cities, but it has become rare to see European customs being followed by the more recent generations of Italian Americans. Many writers have noted that the successive generations of Italian Americans originating from the immigrants who came in the early part of this century have been one of the largest groups to assimilate into mainstream American culture.
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