by Scott Willis & A.J. Abell

The summer festival season continues this weekend in downtown Syracuse. The 17th annual Italian heritage celebration kicked off Friday morning and continues through Sunday. Festival president Ginny Lostumbo says along with all the food and festivities, every year they try to add an educational element to the feast.

"We have Italian classes, we have our mass on Sunday, we're having our first reading in Italian, the second reading will be in English. So everything we touch we try to put both sides, from the old country and from America." She says they're also teaching the newcomers to play Briscola, an Italian Sicilian Neopolitan card game. Lostumbo praises the community's efforts to keep the Italian and other heritage ceremonies going strong.

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Source: http://waer.org/