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.
"You're proud for your parents and grandparents, because that's our heritage. As I say, everybody's Italian for the next three days, but the ones who are are very proud to be, as you know with Irish and so forth with other nationalities."
State Senator John DeFrancisco agrees.
"This community is so blessed with the different ethnic groups to do the things that they do, and to keep our heritage alive for everyone, which is extremely important.”
And of course, it wouldn’t be a festival without traditional Italian food. Lostumbo doesn’t want any of that food to go to waste.
“I tell everybody, if you don't have time to sit and eat, take some food home. The vendors have worked very hard, they're part of the family, they've been with us for years.”
Festa Italiana runs Friday and Saturday from 11a.m. to 11 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 7. More information is at festaitaliana.bizland.com.
