The Annual Feast of San Gennaro

Alfred Gescheidt, Little Italy, Manhattan, (Feast of San Gennaro), 1952

Dan Weiner, San Gennaro Festival, 1952

Lee Sievan, San Gennaro lights, 1940s

Weegee, Murder at the Feast of San Gennaro, September 22, 1939

Weegee, “‘Fiesta’ turns into tragedy, body of dead man, lies on street, Mulberry St., Little Italy,” ca. 1939

“The Annual Feast of San Gennaro, New York City’s longest-running, biggest religious outdoor festival in the United States. . . . The central focus of the celebration takes place every September 19th, the official Saint Day when a celebratory Mass is held in Most Precious Blood Church, followed by a religious procession in which the Statue of San Gennaro is carried from its permanent home in the church through the streets that comprise Little Italy.”

Although perhaps less photogenic and cinematic (the first, and perhaps best, five minutes of Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets) than it used to be, it’s also a bit less bloody…