Advertisement
Published: April 4th 2024
Flight of the Angel
The culmination of the Fisherman's FeastBoston’s North End is known for its Italian feasts. Every single weekend in summer, there is a festival honoring a saint. They are community gatherings and celebration of heritage. Above all, they are religious events, designed to bring blessings for the next year. Nearly all of them were brought from Italy by immigrants in the early 1900s. Even as the neighborhood has gentrified in recent decades, they have remained a staple of the event calendar.
If I had to choose only one feast to experience, it would be the Feast of Madonna del Soccorso, much better known as the
Fisherman’s Feast . It
started among Sicilian fishermen in the 1500s , and was brought to the North End in 1910, making it the oldest feast of them all. It culminates with a religious blessing so unusual it was once featured in National Geographic, the Flight of the Angel.
Its held the third weekend of August on North and Fleet Streets, which happen to intersect in front of the headquarters of the society that puts it on. Both streets are closed to traffic and filled with people and vendor booths. This festival gets crowded.
Most of the booths serve Italian-American food of some kind. Those who
Fisherman's Feast
As the booths show, it is truly a feast like it could eat from a different set each day and barely scratch the surface of the options. The pasta is served in tin-foil containers, often the sign of the best kind! Try not to drip all over while eating, though. Also, save some room for deserts, which are available in vast variety and quantities. Honestly, I’m risking dying of sugar shock being here.
The festival sets up a stage at the main intersection. Various Italian American acts perform throughout the day. Most sang in English. The show ended with a classic vocal quartet. Most were good, but I would not attend just to see them. The food, on the other hand ….
The saint has a figurine, housed in a special carrier. Throughout the day, members of the society carry it around the North End on their shoulders. Periodically they stop for prayers, followed by shouts of “Viva! Viva!”. People approach the figurine and wrap it with long streamers with dollar bills and pictures of saints attached, which are both offerings and donations. When the saint finally reaches the festival, the reason everyone attends this celebration can begin.
Securing the optimal view requires advance planning. The
Offerings
Bringing streamers to the saint place gets packed as the day goes on, which can seriously ruin the view given the narrow street. A rope stretches across one of the streets near the stage. Ideally, one should position themselves roughly two yards beyond this rope away from the stage by the time the saint should arrive. Given all the offerings, it is normally late. When people appear on the balconies next to the rope, expect
the ceremony to begin soon afterward.
The saint’s arrival is preceded by a marching band. With the lack of space, they will push people down the street, creating a wave of humanity flowing toward the stage and onto the sidewalks. This wave can not be avoided, it will move everyone. The only thing that can be done is to compensate for it, ensuring one has an optimal view once on the sidewalk. The optimal viewing spot is between the rope and the stage, within two yards of the rope, which is why one must start on the other side. I managed it almost perfectly.
The carrier with the figurine appears immediately after the band. The saint itself is almost hidden at this point, it has so many offerings. Once
Blessing
The angel blesses the saint the carrier is placed on the ground, people in nearby buildings will drop yet more offering streamers. Society members catch them and bring them to the saint. For those who are close, the streamers flow right overhead! Wrapping them all around the carrier can take a while. Once they are done, the blessing ceremony can begin.
The Flight of the Angel is one of the most unusual religious ceremonies in the United States, It starts with two young girls on the balconies next to the rope, wearing blue robes with golden wings. They offer a prayer to the saint in Italian. In past years its also had an English translation, but not this year. For most of the blessing, they alternate parts. When they begin speaking in unison, the crowds’ pulse quickens.
At this point, a third young girl, in the same outfit, appears on one of the balconies. A bright spotlight shines on her, and then she takes flight! Society members use the rope strung between the balconies to slowly lower her over the crowd to the saint. Needless to say, her smile lit up even more than that spotlight. For those in exactly the right spot,
which I had, she will be backlit by the spotlight for a truly heavenly view.
Once at the saint, she gave another blessing while hanging from the rope, also in Italian. Like before, there was no translation this year. At the end, she slowly rose on the rope as confetti exploded over the crowd and people cheered. This marks the official end of the feast. Although there is still plenty of food to be had, its late enough that most people (myself included) head home.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.104s; Tpl: 0.013s; cc: 19; qc: 28; dbt: 0.0496s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dancing Dave
David Hooper
Flight of the Angel
Wonderful pic of an Angel in heavenly flight. 5 stars!