On Wednesday, July 15, Pellegrini Park on Hawthorne Street was packed with excited, multi-generational festival attendees anticipating Festa’s wide selection of music, food, rides, games, and fun. Many were longtime Festa fans, but many were newcomers to the 91st annual carnival, which attracts several thousand people on each of its five days.
When the St. Mary of Carmen Society first introduced Festa to its neighbors in 1935, it was a neighborhood event celebrating the community’s Italian traditions and Catholic faith. Now, while those important elements remain, the five-day event emphasizes inclusivity, warmth, and enjoyment.
Throughout Nonantum, large and small Italian flags flew on houses and lawns. Utility poles hosted banners of deceased Society activists, including State Auditor Joseph DeNucci. Shrines to the Madonna and to the Society proliferated on streets that would host the afternoon and evening processions carrying the statue of the Madonna through the neighborhood.
Frank Battista, Society President since 2013, was born and raised in Nonantum — also known as “The Lake”. He underscored the commitment the Society has to making everyone feel welcome. “Our forefathers would be proud of what this has become,” he told Fig City News. Speaking of his family’s history, Mr. Batista said that his great-uncle Dominic joined the Society in 1937 and “was a catalyst for immigration,” helping people in Italy to come to the United States – among them his father, who is the longest-serving Society member, having emigrated when he was fifteen.
On the opening night, Mr. Battista led the record audience in the Pledge of Allegiance , the Star Spangled Banner, and the Italian national anthem. As he did every evening, he paid tribute to his predecessor, Anthony “Tony” Gentile, President Emeritus, who is recovering from a fall and, for the first time in many decades, could not attend the festival. Each of the five evenings, Mr. Batista, who has a mellow tenor voice, entertained the crowd by singing “That’s Amore.“ And each of the five evenings, Society Vice President Carl Pasquarosa and Festa Chair Chuck Proia , joined him on stage to promote the 91st anniversary Society book. That book relates the history of the Society and its founders. It also pays tribute to all the members who have died in the past year. Symbolic of the festival’s inherent theme that good prevails, the day, which began under a literal cloud of smoke (from Canadian wild fires) ended in sunshine and blue skies over Pellegrini Park.
Mayor Marc Laredo was the keynote speaker on the first night. Wearing the Society’s “Madonna” Hawaiian shirt and a Lake t-shirt underneath it, he expressed his gratitude to the Society for including him in the event. Many people from Newton came up to chat with the mayor and to thank him for reversing actions taken by his predecessor that had created a widespread publicity storm, putting Festa and Nonantum in the newspapers, radio, and television. Shortly before the beginning of the festival’s 90th anniversary, the previous mayor had ordered the traditional green-white-red stripe on Adams Street – Nonantum’s main street – be replaced with a double yellow line, asserting that the traffic on the street required the change. Just before Festa’s beginning, “volunteers” restored much of the traditional stripe. Sometime after the festival, the City once again obliterated the Italian-flag colored stripe with the yellow lines.
When he became mayor in January, Mayor Laredo promised the community that he would restore the stripe on Adams Street, and he fulfilled that promise early this spring.
One unanticipated consequence of last year’s conflict was the record-breaking attendance at all five days of the festival. This year, crowds matched last year’s numbers. As one Newton native observed, “people came last year because of the publicity and are here this year because they had so much fun last year.”
Each of the five nights offered two bands playing to a range of musical tastes from 1950s hits to ear-splitting current trends.Each evening, many of the people who chose to sit in the enclosed audience section got up to improvise dance steps by themselves or with partners ranging in age from infants to seniors, and all clearly enjoying themselves. Predominantly younger attendees headed for the huge number of carnival games, winning stuffed animals and other, not clearly identifiable prizes. Three young men walked away with a huge plush animal (possibly a penguin) that they then carried on the procession from Pellegrini Park to Our Lady Help of Christians Church.
City Council President John Oliver, who lives in Nonantum, brought the Council’s greetings and told the audience that Festa had been part of his routine in the twenty-four years he has lived there. He concluded his comments with “Viva La Madonna,” the general opening and closing of most speeches. On Saturday night, Newton’s three state representatives — Amy Sangiolo, Greg Schwartz, and John Lawn – who represents Nonantum — spoke about the meaning and importance of the Festa. John Lawn, a sponsor of the event, was on hand every night; Amy Sangiolo was there for three out of five evenings; and Waltham Mayor Jeanette McCarthy was in the audience for three nights.
After some rainfall on Saturday, which diminished but did not eliminate the audience, Sunday was a gorgeously sunny, warm day. It is the appointed day that both the Men’s Society and the Women’s Society of St.Mary of Carmen proceed through the streets of Nonantum accompanying the statue from Our Lady Help of Christian Church to Pellegrini Park, stopping along the way at the homes of recently deceased members. Widows received a bouquet from the large containers behind the statue. People came to give money, which was pinned to the statue’s sashes. In return, members give them pins commemorating the 91st Festa. Mayor Laredo, City Council President Oliver, Councilors Alison Leary and Maria Greenberg, both from Nonantum, and Councilors Tarik Lucas (celebrating his birthday), Julia Malakie, Cyrus Dahmubed, and Sean Roche marched together. Along the way, homeowners offered refreshments to marchers, and there were a number of firecracker displays.
Sunday night concluded at Pellegrini Park with music and speeches. Marian Ryan, a lifelong Festa fan, reminded the audience that the eleven men who began the Festa tradition, which included helping neighbors in need, never dreamt that ninety-one years later, their Society and feast would develop into its current mode.
She was followed by Representatives Lawn, Sangiolo, and Schwartz, who presented a $25,000 check, which Rep. Lawn had secured from the state so that the Society might continue its community work. Then, promptly at 10PM, the Society led the carriage with the statue, marching up Adams Street amid frequent, spectacular fireworks, culminating in a dazzling display in the church parking lot. Following the traditional fireworks, the statue was borne to the front of the Church, where she was welcomed by this year’s designated “angel,” eight-year-old Mia Leone, who, perched above the crowd in a cherry picker, showered the Madonna with rose petals, as a confetti machine blasted clouds of green, white and red confetti across the Madonna’s path. Mr. Proia explained that Festa angels run in families: Mia’s sister, Sofia, served last year.
Inside the church, Mayor Laredo praised the event and the Society for continuing its traditions and welcoming all those who came to be a part of it. The Mayor told Fig City News, “I was honored to be able to participate in the 91st Festa celebration. This is a wonderful event that brings together members of the Nonantum community, residents from throughout the city, and visitors to Newton. The Festa is one of the traditions that makes Newton so special!.”
For the organizers, many of whom have roots in the earliest ideation of the Society, preserving and expanding their heritage is part of their ongoing participation. Chuck Proia is in the fourth generation of his family involved in the Society, beginning with his great-grandfather, Guisseppe Gonzo, and his grandmother, Guiseppe’s daughter Jennie Conzo-Proia, who was the president of the Women’s Society, which disbanded on the 1970s but was resuscitated by his daughters Arrianna and Maria, president and chairman, respectively, along with the daughters of the Battista, Pellegrini, and Pasquarosa families – all original founding Society members. Mr. Proia said he thinks that there has been an expanding Festa audience as a result of social media.
Carl Pasquarosa’s father emigrated from Italy at fifteen to escape an arranged marriage and lived on West Street. He told the story of a cousin, who lives in another state and whom he had never met, but with whom he communicated on Facebook. This year, his cousin and his cousin’s daughter joined him at Festa. Joe DeVito, President and CEO of The Village Bank, was on hand in the bank’s tent. His late father, Alphonse was Chairman of the Board of the bank, which is one of Festa’s major sponsors. The younger DeVito explained that he grew up going to Festa because both of his parents were so involved in the community. His mother, Jenny Magni DeVito, participated in a range of neighborhood organizations.
For Arrianna Proia, now the Newton School Committee member from Ward 1 is a fifth-generation of her family to be involved in Festa and the community. The 84-member Women’s Society shares the commitment of the women who preceded them, and as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit “supports local community activities and charitable works, both independently and in partnership with other organizations.” Recognizing that their “traditions make our community so special, their goal is to [inspire] the next generations to become involved and carry them forward.”
Teresa Gentile Sauro, President of the Nonantum Neighborhood Association and the unofficial “Mayor of Nonantum,” is the daughter of an original member and sister of the longtime President, Tony Gentile. She is also a member of the Women’s Society and remembers when her grandmother and her aunt, dressed in white, walked behind the statue and little girls, in their communion dresses, would be part of the procession. “Our world is so crazy,” she said, “but this brings people together. Everyone is welcome!”
Among its achievements this year, the Society’s Scholarship fund raised nearly $7,000 through the brisk sale of raffle tickets at Festa. The money will be awarded to winning essay-writers in next year’s senior high school class.