Due to my foot surgeries two years in a row, our family has been sidelined again this summer. We usually travel near the Optional Memorial of Our Lady of Mount Carmel to my husband's hometown to participate in the Mount Carmel festival, sponsored by the Italian parish Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Altoona, Pennsylvania. We have attended so many years, that I realized I never wrote about one of my favorite feasts because we were always celebrating instead of having time to write.

I was raised in a "Bible Belt" area that didn't have as many Catholic cultural traditions such as ethnic festivals and processions. The first time I read Helen McLoughlin's description in her book My Nameday Come for Dessert of the traditional festival in East Harlem in New York City (which continues today), I was completely captivated and hoped I could attend something similar in my life. Years later, I found the Mount Carmel Festival in Altoona, although on a much smaller scale, was one of those traditional ethnic Catholic festivals.

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Source: http://www.catholicculture.org/