Festival Of St. Mary Of Carmen Society A Grand Nonantum Reunion

NEWTON, MA — David Sellers looks forward to the reunion at the Festival St. Mary of Carmen Society in Nonantum each summer. When Sellers was young, it was a family reunion when most or all of his great grandmother's 12 children returned to Murphy Court for the five days of the festival leading up to the giant family cookout on Sunday. These days, it's a neighborhood reunion as Sellers brings his own children from Framingham to give them a window into the community where bonds remain as strong today as they were when the festival was founded in 1935.

"It's important for me to have my kids see the value of being part of a community that is larger than yourself and something that has endured for so long," said Sellers, who is the executive director of the John M. Barry Boys & Girls Club of Newton. "When you come back for the festival, you are coming back to a place where you feel you belong."

The St. Mary of Carmen Society began as a mutual-benefit society in the Italian neighborhood during the Great Depression to help provide disability insurance and modest death benefits to members. The festival became the primary fundraising mechanism for the organization, which now raises money for charitable donations and college scholarships for Newton students through the five-day festival, annual dinner/dance and Christmas tree sales.

This year's festival got off to a bit of a stormy start on Wednesday as fierce downpours drenched the carnival rides and games early in the evening. Yet, even with temperatures expected near 100 degrees on Saturday and Sunday, festival chairman Chuck Proia said he expects large crowds to pack Pellegrini Park on Hawthorn Street for the nightly concerts and to line the streets of Nonantum for the pair of processions on Sunday.

"We call Nonantum the village of tradition," Proia said. "We have the same traditions with the festival that our great grandparents did. Some of us are going on four, five generations at this point. People keep coming back. Whether they are coming back from California, Florida or Waltham, they come back each year to be around their childhood friends. That's what this is all about. You don't get this in too many places."

Proia said there will be plenty of water available to help keep people hydrated through this weekend's heat and noted that the 5 p.m. start time on Saturday will keep attendees out of the strongest sun of the day. There will be music each night with The Legit Band Friday night, the Reminisants and Bob Seger cover band Live Bullet Saturday night, and a full day of events on Sunday beginning with a mass at 8 a.m. and continuing with a procession through Nonantum at 2 p.m., music from Seabreeze with Steven Savio at 6 and the candlelight procession to Our Lady's Church and Flight of the Angels at 10.

While Sellers said there is a comfort in knowing the festival will be almost exactly the same as he remembers it from his youth, Proia said the entertainment is one area where the festival committee has tried to keep up with the times just a touch.

"About 10 years ago we used to have more of a band concert on Saturday night," Proia said. "Then we made a decision to bring in more up-to-date music. Some of the older folks would call it new music. But for us it's classic rock. The other thing that's changed is that the crowds get bigger and bigger every year. We have limited space in the park where people can sit and watch the concert."

The attendance may have increased, but many of the familiar faces remain constant.

"It's a great time to come back to see everybody and celebrate the successes you've had together," Sellers said. "Then if things aren't going as well in life, it's a good time to come back to reconnect with your support system and the role models who have gotten you through tough times in the past.

"It is a multi-generational reunion complete with singing, dancing, a little bit of spirituality and a whole lot of reminiscing about the good times," Sellers concluded, "and by doing that, you create more good times."