Community Corner
Festa Italiana Stirs Small-Town Spirit in Big White Plains
Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in White Plains hosted its annual Festa Italiana from Thursday through Sunday. The traditional Our Lady of Mount Carmel Procession was staged before Sunday's installment of the Festa.
A stalwart of the White Plains summer scene for decades, the Festa Italiana at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church on South Lexington Avenue wrapped up its usual four-day run on Sunday night.
Live music, carnival games, food and drink, and an air-conditioned casino were featured, along with the usual community spirit.
"We love it because it's folksy," said Nora Isles, whose husband Oliver was manning the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel at the entrance on Saturday night.
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Many attendees attach cash donations to the statue as they enter the Festa.
"Our town is big," Nora Isles said, "but it's small."
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Isles was remembering her mother, Mary Sheehan, a longtime parishioner at Our Lady of Mount Carmel who died in 1986. She said her mother exemplified the Christian ideal of humble and inconspicuous generosity.
"My mother's greatest gift to her children was the gift of faith," Isles said. "She didn't talk about it; she just did it."
Former Councilman Glen Hockley, who is Jewish, has been volunteering at the Festa for five years.
"To me," Hockley said, "this is what community is all about. You don't have to be Catholic, and you don't have to be a certain nationality. It's what White Plains is all about."
Our Lady of Mount Carmel is a Roman Catholic Church with a large Italian-American population among its parishioners. Saturday was the feast day for Our Lady of Mount Carmel, the title given to the Virgin Mary by the Carmelite Order.
Before Sunday's installment of the Festa, a traditional procession and solemn mass were held in observance of the feast day. A large statue was brought out of the church onto South Lexington Avenue, amidst a bed of rose petals.
As an Italian marching band played "Amazing Grace" and other relevant traditional songs, over 100 processors turned left onto Quarropas Street, then left on Court Street, left on Martine Avenue, and left onto South Lexington Avenue to return to the church.
Participants prayed in groups, led by Rev. Albert Azrak, the church's pastor in residence, and privately as well. They also sang and paid homage to the statue. The church, which has been in existence since 1902, started doing the processions again in 1993 or 1994, according to parishioner Lisa Ciambriello. The Festa has been staged annually since around 1980.
Frank Torre, one of the leaders of the procession and a member of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish council, said the procession and Festa both serve to raise money for the church, which in today's economy is more important than ever, he added.
"It's a great tradition," Torre said, "A safe place for people to come for fun and fellowship."
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