Wed 8/26 @ 6PM
Each year for more than 120 years, hordes have descended on Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood for the Feast of the Assumption, known widely as just “The Feast.” While it revolves around a Catholic Holy day celebrating the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into heaven, which takes place on August 15 with a large, colorful procession and a mass, for many it’s all about food: cannoli and cavatelli and stromboli and spumoni, fried ravioli and pizza and funnel cakes and gelato. And more. Much much more.
Alas, this year there was no parade, or public mass (host Holy Rosary Church had a streamed mass), no mobs of people gorging themselves while standing up, or games of chance and rides in the churchyard.
But if you’d like to bathe in the nostalgia of feasts past or look ahead to feats future, or just learn more about the background of this beloved Cleveland evening, the Western Reserve Historical Society, in partnership with Holy Rosary Church and Little Italy Redevelopment Corporation, are offering a Zoom lecture explaining the religious roots of the celebration and how Cleveland’s Feast became such a big deal with Catholics and non-Catholics, Italian-Americans and people of other ethnicities.
Join them on Wednesday August 26. It’s free but registration is required.
Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH 44106