Pine Street, July 1907.
Hundreds of Italian immigrants dressed up one of the most prominent streets in Montclair’s 4th Ward with balloons, fireworks and bands.
The nearby bakeries and butcher shops were strewn with red and green streamers.
The Our Lady of Mount Carmel feast, a 10-day celebration honoring the Virgin Mary amid a host of devout Catholic Italian families, launched what would become an annual event.
But in 1971, that most authentic expression of Southern Italian culture exported to the New World came to an end. And it would not be revived for more than three decades.
Last year, when members of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church brought the feast back to the streets, complete with a high Mass, carnival, food vendors, Verdi opera music, sausage and peppers and a communitywide procession of the Virgin Mary statue, it was the ultimate test to see if it could persevere.
The result: about 4,000 people who came from afar and a few blocks away to show support and make it a success.
So if you missed the revival last year, then you’ll get another chance to step into a little bit of Italy.
"It’s the one day when we can honor Our Lady, take our religion, and do it the way it’s done in Italy," said feast co-chair Paul Porcelli.
This year, the three-day feast, which is being organized by the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast Committee, begins on Friday, July 18.
The 5-foot-high icon of the Virgin Mary, covered with an arch of yellow flowers, will be carried by volunteers out of the Our Lady of Mount Carmel R.C. Church sanctuary on Pine Street and led through the old Italian enclave – dubbed "down the Ward."
UNICO, a national Italian-American service organization that recently opened a branch in Montclair, will carry a banner in the procession, and the event will be anchored by about 30 volunteers, Porcelli said.
"It’s the one spot to go to see people you haven’t seen in along time," said Porcelli, whose family in Montclair stretches back four generations. "It’s something that meant a lot to my grandparents, and I want it to continue," he said.
Feast co-chair Frank Cardell remembers the feast as a child, when arched lights stretched across the streets of Claremont and Glenridge avenues.
This year, there will be new additions to the feast, including large carnival rides and a craft and flea market in the church hall, Cardell said. "We’re trying to bring back the tradition as it used to be, but we’re doing it a step at a time," he said, noting that visitors come from as far as South Jersey and New York.
And no feast would be complete without the palate-pleasing trays of charbroiled Italian sausages.
"It makes it not just a carnival, but the Italian food makes it more authentic to the occasion," said feast committee member Dan Arminio, who is also vice president of the Society of Saint Sebastian of Montclair. The Society of Saint Sebastian is helping organize the feast along with the Saint Vito Aquilonese Society of Montclair, as both groups have deep roots in the township.
Italian immigrants settled in Montclair during the early 1900s, many finding work as manual laborers. By 1920, Italians made up the largest group of foreign-born residents in Montclair, according to former Montclair historian Royal F. Shepard Jr. in the "History" section of "The Montclair Millenium Book, 2000-2002."
The church anchored the neighborhood where Italians settled, and feasts to honor Our Lady was the talk of the town.
For those who have family history in the area, church is still at the heart of their lives.
"This always reminds me of the old neighborhood," Arminio said.
