Nonantum’s Festa Italiana: 89 years and counting!

Red, white, and green flags; porch lights and median strips; flagpole posters with pictures of local business owners and departed members of the St. Mary of Carmen Society — and temporary electronic police signs warning drivers to expect delays July 17-21 from 4PM to 11PM — announce Nonantum’s annual Italian-American Festival. 

Each year, thousands of people from all over Nonantum — and from other Newton villages, all over Massachusetts and beyond — head to Pellegrini Park on Hawthorn Street to take the rides, play the wide variety of games (and win prizes), sample fried dough, sausages, fries, cotton candy, popcorn and ices — and listen to a variety of bands. 

Members of the St. Mary of Carmen Men’s Society, dressed in blue shirts and black trousers, sit at booths selling chances to win $1,000 or a flat-screen TV or a remote starter, to raise money for the Society’s college scholarship awards. Some give buttons with a picture of the St. Mary of Carmen statue to people who make donations, or sell T-shirts with “The Lake” — Nonantum’s popular name — imprinted on them. 

Society President Frank Battista and Vice President Carl Pasquarosa are on hand, serving as MCs, official greeters, and representatives of the Society’s enduring family tradition. This is the 89th year of the St. Mary of Carmen Festival — for many years called Festa — a four-generation salute to the many families who came to Nonantum from the village of San Donato Val di Comino in Italy.

At the entrance to Pellegrini Park, a booth introduces the year-old reconstituted St. Mary of Carmen Women’s Society, featuring some of its members — most in their twenties, and most from the “next” generation of Nonantum’s Italian-American community. Two of its leaders — Arrianna and Maria Proia, both fourth-generation St. Mary of Carmen Society members — are greeting friends and answering questions, signing up interested women, and taking pictures. Their father, Charles (Chuck) Proia, is the Festival Chairman. His grandmother was the last President of the St. Mary of Carmen Women’s Society, which was inactive until Arianna and Maria revived it last year. 

Third-generation community leaders Anthony Gentile and his sister, Teresa Gentile Sauro, greet officials and friends. They seem to know everyone of the several thousand people in the park. Anthony (Tony) Gentile was president of the Men’s Society for forty-one years and is responsible for the fireworks at the end of the celebration, as well as those on July 4th at Albemarle Field. His younger sister, known as Terry, is President of the Nonantum Village Association and is now the senior member of the St. Mary of Carmen Women’s Society.

Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian, who has been a presence at the Festival for decades, came on Thursday evening, the Festival’s second night. So did Newton School Superintendent Dr. Anna Nolin, wearing a Lake T-shirt, to listen to the music of the Breeze featuring her husband on the drums. People were dancing in front of the stage or sitting in folding chairs swaying to the music. There were generally two bands each night entertaining an enthusiastic crowd.

City Council President Marc Laredo joined the festivities on Thursday evening, bringing greetings to the enthusiastic crowd. Mayor Ruthanne Fuller, who always attends the Festival, this year accompanied by her son Chris, hugged, kissed, and shook hands with many of the attendees. On Saturday night, the Society honored retiring State Representative Kay Khan. (Her colleague, State Representative Ruth Balser, who is also retiring and was also to be honored, developed Covid that morning and could not attend.) Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan always marches on Sunday night in the procession returning the statue of the Madonna from her specially constructed shrine in Pellegrini Park to Our Lady Help of Christians Church. All five days are a blend of civic and social community engagement.

For the St. Mary of Carmen Society, Sunday is the culmination of the five days, combining both the revelry and religious aspects of the festival. At 2PM, following a religious service at Our Lady Help of Christian Church, members of the Men’s Society — all dressed in short-sleeved blue shirts, with red, white, and green sashes and black trousers — place the decorated statue of St. Mary of Carmen Madonna on a rolling platform. The procession — including the North End Marching Band, a large bell on a flatbed truck, and a significant contingent of both the Men’s and Women’s Society — winds its way through Nonantum, stopping at the homes of recently deceased community members. 

In earlier times, the original Women’s Society would follow the statue of the Madonna, singing Italian hymns. Today, the new Women’s Society, dressed in white polo shirts and red, white, and green sashes, leads the procession. Isabella Forte, one of the new members, has taken on the responsibility of driving the “Lake” jeep that precedes the marchers. The band plays both lively and somber music and a fourth-generation Men’s Society member, Dante Luchetti, pulls the bell’s rope. He is the grandson of Newton retired Fire Chief Gino Luchetti and great-grandson of the Men’s Society’s longtime moving force, Anthony “Fat” Pellegrini. In spite of the heat, the streets are packed with family members standing in front of their homes — many decorated with Italian flags and red, white, and green streamers — all waiting to greet the procession and give money to the Men’s Society members who pin the money on the statue’s sashes and give the donors pins with the Madonna’s picture. At several places along the way — especially adjacent to the Order Sons of Italy In America building on Adams Street — long strings of fire-crackers fill the street with smoke and ear-splitting explosions.

At about 4PM, the procession arrives at Pellegrini Park, where hundreds of people are enjoying the fair and the food, and the statue is placed in the shrine, where people continue to give money to the Men’s Society members and receive pins in return. By nightfall there are several thousand people — families with children, seniors, and teen-agers — of many races, ethnic backgrounds, religions, all engaged in having a great time. Screams from people on terrifying rides mix with the shouts of people trying to hit targets at various games and the laughter of people having a really good time. On the last night, the last musical set is traditional Italian music featuring singer and accordionist Elio LoRusso. 

At 10PM, an enormous crowd gathers around the shrine, where the Men’s Society is carefully arranging the statue on the rolling platform for the return to Our Lady’s. Members of both Men’s and Women’s societies are distributing candles in plastic cups and helping people light them. Bursting fireworks light up the night as the procession moves along Watertown Street to Adams Street. A huge full moon lights the path of the many hundreds of excited marchers as colorful fireworks continue to delight the crowd. 

When the Madonna reaches the parking lot behind Our Lady’s, the procession halts, and ten minutes of eye-popping fireworks fill Adams Street with a rainbow of lights as well as clouds of smoke and intense noise. An appreciative crowd applauds and shouts. At last the display concludes, and the procession continues to Washington Street and through the church gates, where several hundred people are gathered for the final display of the night. Slowly, the Madonna rolls toward the church steps, as the eyes of the crowd turn toward a large cherry picker on the right-hand side of the church entrance. Slowly, the bucket of the cherry picker advances to meet the oncoming statue. And then a small figure — Emma Koffman — appears over the rim of the bucket, held up by her uncle, Joseph Caruso, a Men’s Society member. She is the daughter of Women’s Society member Loredana Koffman. Stationed just above the statue, she strews rose petals as the band plays and clouds of red, white, and green confetti fill the air, covering every surface. Fireworks explode as people cheer, applaud, and ascend the stairs to fill the church for the last service.

Outside, the Men’s Society team assigned to the Madonna struggles to remove the decorations and gradually positions her to fit through the church door to join parishioners who have come to worship her and give thanks for another successful Festa. When she comes to the altar next summer, she will be celebrating the 90th anniversary of the Festival.