The Feast of Saint Rosalie, a more than 100-year-old tradition, in East Utica, continues this weekend. The first feast was celebrated in the backyard of an East Utica home. The feast, honoring one of the patron saints of Sicily, continues not far from its original location, on the corner, of Mohawk and Jay Streets, in Utica.
For Jim Delitto, President of the St Rosalia Society, it's about religion, familiar faces, food, memories and roots. "With people my age and a little younger, it's a nostalgic thing, it reminds us of our parents and our grandparents before us. But for the younger generation, it's a connection to their roots, not just their roots, like, Italian American roots or Sicilian roots, but their roots in the east side of Utica, which has a rich heritage of its own."
