Feast of San Gennaro

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Facing south on Mulberry Street during the 2006 Festival.

Street vendors selling sausages at the feast.

The Feast of San Gennaro, originally a one-day religious commemoration, is now an 11-day street fair held in mid-September in the Little Italy area of Manhattan. Its advocates celebrate it as an annual celebration of Italian culture and the Italian-American community, though some residents of the area have criticized the festival for the effect that the noise, litter and crowds generated by the festival have on the quality of life in the area. Although it is portrayed as a neighborhood event, neither the organizers, the vendors, or the attendees live in Little Italy, though arguably Italian-Americans are among those who do attend it every year.

Centered on Mulberry Street, which is closed to traffic for the occasion, the festival generally features parades, street vendors, sausages and zeppole, games, and a Roman Catholic candlelit procession which begins immediately after a celebratory Mass at the Church of the Most Precious Blood. Another festival is held with the same attractions and New York City's other Little Italy, in the Fordham/Belmont community in the Bronx. The streets are closed to traffic and the festivities begin early in the morning and proceed late into the night.

San Gennaro (Saint Januarius) is the patron saint of Naples, Italy. His feast day is September 19 in the liturgical calendar of the Roman Catholic Church. The first Feast of San Gennaro was held on September 18, 1926, by newly-arrived Neapolitan immigrants who retained the customary observance from Italy. Similar festivals have also been sponsored in other U.S. cities.