By Kathy-Ann Gobin
DANBURY—The second annual San Gennaro Festival kicked off with a Mass at St. Peter Parish on Main Street with Bishop Frank J. Caggiano, who led a procession of faithful from the Main Street church to the city center for festivities.
Bishop Caggiano, the Grand Marshal of the event, blessed a statue of St. Gennaro before being accompanied by St. Peter pastor Father Gregg Mecca and St. Joseph Parish’s pastor Father Samuel Scott and others atop a float to bring the statute to the Ives Street festival where it remained for the five-day event.
The festival celebrates the life of San Gennaro, the patron saint of Naples who was Bishop of Benevento, Italy and was martyred in 305 AD. The Feast of San Gennaro is celebrated on September 19 in the General Roman Calendar of the Catholic Church. The well-known San Gennaro Festival in New York City inspired the Galante family to bring the festival to Danbury.
“We’ve always loved doing things for the community and we wanted to bring the community together,” said Tina Galante, who owns Diversified Printing Solutions in Danbury and helped coordinate the event with her husband Jimmy.
“We were so thrilled and honored that the bishop accepted our invitation,” Jimmy Galante said. “The church was filled. It was amazing. He blessed the statue. It was a beautiful day.”
The Galantes purchased the San Gennaro statue from Naples, Italy instead of borrowing a 110-year-old statue from a church in New York, as they did the previous year.
“What touched me the most was after bringing the new statue to St. Peter’s Church, we turned and saw the church was packed on a Wednesday afternoon,” Jimmy Galante said. “That was awesome.”
After the procession, the bishop greeted the many festival goers.
“People were so excited to meet the bishop. They were lined up to see him and he spoke with everyone,” Jimmy Galante said.
The first planned festival was cancelled in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. The following year the prudent decision was made at the last minute to cancel the festival after a rise of coronavirus cases in the area.
But the decision to bring the San Gennaro Festival to the Hat City would not be deterred. This year the festival more than doubled the amount of food vendors present and offered more than a dozen business vendors to showcase their specialties.
Live music, a laser light show, rides and games were all a part of the street festival under the custom made red, white and green banner arches over the roadway. There were also crowd-pleasing meatball and cannoli eating contests during the festival.
“The Danbury San Gennaro festival is a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our Italian community and bring everyone together,” said Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito. “We were so blessed to have Bishop Frank J. Caggiano serve as the San Gennaro Festival Grand Marshal, leading Mass and the procession down Main Street. It was wonderful to see the Greater Danbury community come out in support of this wonderful event.”
All proceeds from the festival benefit local Danbury charities and organizations. The Galantes said they appreciate all the support from the community.
“The main thing is to bring Christ back into the community and to bring the community together,” Jimmy Galante said.
