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Feast of San Gennaro & Parade in Little Italy Manhattan NYC

Manhattan's Signature Italian Festival Celebrates Little Italy in NYC

Updated September 8, 2024 vs 9.13.23 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / Gotham Buzz NYC.

CLICK here to find many of the details for the current year [2024] regarding the dates / times / location of the Feast of San Gennaro & Parade in Manhattan NYC, as well as the url to the parade organizers, which is located in our Parades & Festivals section.

Fall is just around the corner, which means the San Gennaro Festival is about to begin in Little Italy in Manhattan. See the front page or the parades & festivals page or click into the story for details of the San Gennaro Festival of 2023.

A Very Brief History of Little Italy Manhattan

Little Italy is just north of Canal street, across from Chinatown, which lies to its south. SoHo lies to its west, across Lafayette Street. While the Bowery is just east of it along Mott and Bowery Streets, and Nolita [North of Little Italy] lies to the north of it, across Broome Street. This is something of a downsized area from the original Little Italy of a century ago.

Little Italy was an important destination for Italians arriving in New York City in the late 1800's and early 20th century. It was generally a poor, working class neighborhood at that time, filled with laborers, and shopkeepers who traded food, wine and clothing. And the community was fairly self-sufficient with its own doctors, lawyers and bankers accoding to a Wikipedia account of an NYT story in 1896.

Little Italy's size and population peaked in the early 20th century, at about 10,000, as Italians left for greener pastures in other parts of the city, including East Harlem, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens and Staten Island. Nonetheless, Little Italy remains somewhat intact, as a very popular tourist destination, the peak of which is celebrated in tandem with the San Gennaro Festival.

CLICK here to read the rest of our report about the Feast of San Gennaro & Parade in Little Italy Manhattan NYC.

San Gennaro Feast in Little Italy Manhattan NYC

Manhattan's Signature Italian Festival Celebrates Little Italy in NYC

September 13, 2023 / NYC Neighborhoods / NYC Things To Do Events / Gotham Buzz NYC. Continued.

The Italian American Museum in Little Italy in Manhattan

I visited the Italian American Museum a few years prior to it closing for construction / renovations in 2020. The museum is currently planning to reopen in the Fall of this year [2023], but as of this post, I wasn't able to obtain a hard date for the reopening.

In the museum I was able to learn about the origins of the folks who came from Italy and established Little Italy in lower Manhattan. Generally they came from the Naples and Sicily regions in the southwest section of Italy.

Of course the Italian immigrants came by boat [airplanes didn't become a large commercial method of transport until after WWII]. The Italian American Museum highlighted one of the large ships, the S.S. Giuseppe Verdi, that transported many of the Italian immigrants in the early part of the 20th century. The S.S. Giuseppe Verdi, was built by the Societa Esercizio Bacini of Riva Trigoso in Italy in 1914. Riva Trigoso is just south of Genoa, which is a millenia old seaport and of course shipbuilding area. As a footnote, it's worth mentioning that Verdi was a mid 19th century Italian composer of operas, the most famous of which include La Traviata and Rigoletto.

From 1915 to 1928 the 2,200 passenger ship transported literally tens of thousands of Italians to the New World, landing at Ellis Island. From Ellis Island, most made their way to Little Italy in Manhattan, and then - as noted above - many moved on from there. The ship passengers came primarily from the ports of Genoa, Naples and Palermo in Sicily. In 1928 the S.S. Giuseppe Verdi was sold to a Japanese company and it was sunk by an American torpedo in 1943.

A Very Brief History of the Feast of San Gennaro & Parade in Manhattan NYC

According to Wikipedia, Bishop Gennaro was beheaded under the reign of Emperor Diocletan, who from 303 - 312, undertook a campaign of mass executions of Christians. Gennaro's nurse collected the blood from his decapitation and in 313, after the scourge, Gennaro's body and the blood were taken to Naples where they were placed in a plaza, where his blood melted [liquified again]. Thereafter Gennaro was made the patron saint of Naples, and he is honored three times a year. The first is the first Sunday in May to mark the first time his blood liquified, the second is the day [September 16] he is believed to have interceded in a volcanic eruption by Mount Vesuvius in 1631, and the third is the day [September 19] he was beheaded.

The first time the San Gennaro Festival was celebrated by Little Italy in southern Manhattan was in 1926, during the heyday of Italian immigration. While the San Gennaro Festival is celebrated in Italy over the course of three days, in Little Italy in Manhattan, the celebrations continue over an 11 day period. The event includes church services, a parade, food, live entertainment and some contests. The full schedule is provided below, as well as in our parades and festivals section, and we also provide highlights in the weekend posts.

Church of the Most Precious Blood & National Shrine of San Gennaro in Manhattan NYC

There's a Church, Church of the Most Precious Blood, that once occupied two plots of land running through the block between [103] Mulberry Street to [113] Baxter Street. The Baxter Street entrance is to the front of the church, while the Mulberry Street entrance used to lead to the Franciscan Fathers courtyard and rectory. In 2019 the Rectory was sold and condominiums sprouted up shortly thereafter.

According to Wikipedia, the parish was started in 1888. The church was begun in 1891 by the Scalibrini Order, but ran short of funds. In 1904 the Franciscan Order completed the church and established a rectory behind it.

I visited the church in 2014 and took some photos of it and the rectory, which you can see here, and in the slide show. The church was fully renovated in 1995, which is shown in the photos. As most of the Italians that once comprised Little Italy have moved elsewhere, the parish is finding it challenging to survive financially, which the sale of the rectory in 2019 evinced. In 2015, a year after I visited the church, it was merged into the parish of Old St. Patricks, to facilitate the Catholic Church staffing of it.

I could not find any evidence that the church has been landmarked, or provided any preservation status by the city, state or federal government. What's interesting is that a church by the same name, built in 1934, in Astoria Queens, has been provided such protection.

What to Expect at the Feast & Parade of San Gennaro in NYC

I attended the Feast of San Gennaro in 2014, and in spite of intermittent heavy rains that year, Little Italy was still quite crowded.

As the streets are almost as narrow as those in old Italy, when one takes into account the food stalls and the outdoor dining, a bit of extra time is needed to stroll from one place to the next. I am pretty certain [but haven't confirmed] that no cars are allowed during the weekends, particularly when the parade comes through on Saturday.

One thing is for certain and that is that there will be plenty of Italian food available, from a wide variety of Italian vendors. Generally the food reflects the west coast of Italy, stretching from Genoa to Naples to Palermo in Sicily, as that is from whence the Italian immigrants of Little Italy came. See the slide show for details.

There's also a bit of shopping to be had, as well as rides for the kids, all of which are shown in the slide show.

Come prepared to enjoy yourself, Italian Ameriican style.

Schedule of Events for the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy Manhattan NYC

The Feast of San Gennaro in Manhattan Little Italy runs from September 14 - 24, 2023.

It's the 97th Feast of San Gennao in Little Italy.

The Feast of San Gennaro takes place in Little Italy: 1) along Mulberry Street between Canal & Houston, 2) along Hester between Baxter & Centre Streets, and 3) along Grand between Baxter Street & Centre Market Place.

There is something going on each day of the Feast of San Gennaro in Little Italy, which you can use the link the follows to view. But that said, here are a few of the highlights.

Thursday, September 14, 2023 from 6 to 7 pm, there's the blessing of the stands. Live music will be performed starting at 5 pm and running to 9 pm. On Friday there's live music from 7 to 9 pm.

Saturday, September 16, 2023 beginning at 2 pm, there's the big parade featuring bands, floats and marchers from around the tri-state area. Live music follows from 5 to 6.30 pm.

Sunday, September 17, 2023 from 1 to 2 pm, Pizza Making Demonstration.

Monday, September 18, 2023 from 7 to 9 pm, Enrico Caruso Opera Night.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023 from 6 to 8 pm, High Mass honoring the Patron Saint of Naples, San Gennaro at the Church of the Most Precious Blood at 113 Baxter Street.

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday & Saturday, September 20 - 23, 2023, at various times in the late afternoon / early evening, there's live music.

Sunday, September 24, 2023, intermittently from 12 noon to 9 pm, there's live music.

For further information and tickets see - https://sangennaronyc.org/