Say Goodbye To Summer With This Italian Festival In Scranton, Pennsylvania
Summer’s preparing to take its final bow with the unofficial end of the season over Labor Day weekend. That means we’ve got limited time to pack in everything we want to do before the pools, amusement parks, and beaches close until next year. While you’re making those end-of-summer plans, mark this Italian festival in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on you...
Biondi Biscotti to bring food, fellowship to Penn Township in 2nd Italian Festival
Biondi Biscotti will bring Italian food and fun to Penn Township on Saturday. The cafe, located off of Route 130, will celebrate its second year of business at its second annual Italian Festival, featuring food, desserts, music and children’s activities. The event will run from 3 to 7 p.m. Louis Biondi, owner of the Italian cafe, began making and s...
St. Elizabeth parish in Wilmington hosts relics of late Italian teenager Blessed Carlo Acutis Aug. 26-27
Relics are a very deep and ancient Catholic tradition, according to one diocesan priest, and Catholics in the area can venerate a first-class relic of a 20th century young man who died at age 15 and was beatified a few years ago. The St. Pius X Columbiettes of the city of Wilmington have organized a two-day stop at St. Elizabeth Church of five stra...
Philly Councilmember Mark Squilla and Italian American groups sue Mayor Kenney for renaming Columbus Day
Philadelphia City Councilmember Mark Squilla and dozens of Italian American groups sued Mayor Jim Kenney’s administration in federal court Tuesday for changing the name of the city’s Columbus Day holiday to Indigenous Peoples’ Day. “While both groups’ ethnicity deserve recognition, Mayor Kenney may not take action that discriminates against Italian...
Celebrate Bloomfield’s Roots With Little Italy Days This Weekend
Four days of celebrating Bloomfield’s rich Italian heritage will kick off this Thursday, and you’re invited — whether you’re Italian or not. “Everybody’s Italian this weekend!” says local musician and Bloomfield native Sal Richetti, Little Italy Days promoter since 2012. Little Italy Days was started in 2002 with the goal of celebrating the town’s...
Annual Italian Food Festival returns to Dunmore
Who doesn’t love bazaar food and Italian food? Judging by a crowd this weekend in Dunmore, no one! Saints Anthony and Rocco Parish held their Annual Italian Food Festival. The favorite local event returned to Dunmore this weekend for another successful year. This was also the first year Our Lady of Mount Carmel consolidated with the parish, so the...
The Value of Faith, Friendship and Tradition: ISDA National Convention 2023
I haven’t said hello through my column in quite a while, so I thought I’d do so now to let you know how excited I’ll be to see many of you at the upcoming ISDA National Convention in Pittsburgh. The ISDA Order and Fraternal conventions are truly the bond that holds our wonderful organization together. They provide us with not only the opportunity t...
Erie natives reflect on history of Erie’s Little Italy
With the Italian Festival this weekend, Erie natives sharing stories of what the neighborhood was like more than 50 years ago. Thousands of italians immigrated to erie around the turn of the century. David Cacchione said Erie’s Little Italy is a special neighborhood. He wrote a book about what it was like growing up there in the late 1940’s. “I loo...
The history of the Italian Festival, aka Festa Italiana in Bradford, PA
The annual Festa Italiana, held each August on Festival Way, is eagerly anticipated by Bradfordians — and not by just those of Italian descent! It’s a three-day tradition of great homemade Italian food, games, music, dancing, fireworks and greeting old friends – many of whom return to Bradford expressly for Festa Italiana – as the city joyously cel...
New Kensington church celebrates 42nd annual Italian Fest
Gina Abdallah of New Kensington knows the secret to a delicious cannoli is not its filling, nor is it the shell or nuts, or other accoutrements. It is the love you put into making it. “It’s what makes them tasty, the love,” Abdallah said. “I love doing it. I love being at festivals. I love my church. It’s a great part of the community.” Love was in...
IAP 288: Welcome to Rroseto, PA, the happiest place in Italian America!
For years we’ve been searching for an idyllic Italian American village where we might find the perfect spot to recreate the Italian American neighborhood life we all long for, and this week, we’ve literally hit the Big Time! In this week’s episode, we discuss our recent trip to Pennsylvania’s Slate Belt borough of Roseto, a historically Italian Ame...
La Festa Italiana is Back August 9. Jersey City Tradition Since 1902
For some people, La Festa Italiana is like a trip back in time, partly because it harkens back to an era when Italian immigrants dominated downtown Jersey City. While in recent years, some of the religious aspects of the traditional feast have been cut back in order to accommodate a whole new population to that part of the city, Nicholas Grillo, on...
