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Fog/Mist Santa Marina to be paraded through Inwood
Santa Marina Society carries century- old Italian-feast tradition
The Santa Marina Society of Inwood’s Santa Marina Feast is back this summer for the first time in three years. The Feast, set for July 15 and 16, will feature amusement park rides, games, music, a live auction, food and more in Our Lady of Good Counsel Church’s parking lot on Wanser Avenue, Inwood.
The society is a religious organization established in 1921 by Italian immigrants from Filandari, a small town in the Calabria region of Italy, dedicated to honoring Santa Marina, or Saint Marina Vergine, Filandari’s patron saint. “It's the patron saint of where we come from,” society Treasurer and Secretary Giovanni Curra said. “All these towns in Italy have a patron saint in each church.”
Santa Marina has been celebrated annually for a century in Inwood with the Santa Marina Feast. “It's a carnival Friday and Saturday night with Italian food, games, rides,” Curra said. “On the Saturday of the Feast, we do a big religious Mass — church Mass — at Our Lady of Good Counsel Church, and then we do a procession, where we carry the saint” — a statue of Santa Marina — “through the streets of Inwood.”
“Due to Covid, we had the services, but we didn’t have the Feast for three years,” member Francesca Cimato said. The last time Santa Marina was celebrated traditionally was 2019. In 2020 the celebration was limited to an outdoor procession with no Feast, and last year, the Santa Marina Society’s centenary in Inwood, there was a Mass and a procession — but again, no feast.
This year, all of the activities will return. The Feast is important for the society because it raises money for Our Lady of Good Counsel, and because it honors the organization’s early members, Curra said. Curra’s grandfather Frank Curra, an immigrant from Filandari, spearheaded the society’s revitalization in 1962 after it had been disbanded for 30 years.
Vice President Marino Curra, Giovanni’s second cousin, gets very involved in the Santa Marina Feast, he said. Marino’s grandfather Carmelo Curra, a cousin of Frank Curra’s, was an early member of the society, and Marino’s mother, Marina, is another Filandari native. Both Marino and his mother are named after Santa Marina.
Thinking ahead to the Feast, Marino said he looked forward to “pretty much the whole thing,” he said, especially the Mass and procession. He added that for him and his mother, Santa Marina “is pretty much bigger than Christmas.”
This year, the Feast will resume, along with amusement park rides and live music on both July 15 and 16, and a live auction and cash raffle on Saturday night. Attendants can enjoy sausage and peppers, hamburgers, hot dogs, zeppoles, pizza, frozen yogurt, and more Italian pastries and cookies.
To learn more about the Santa Marina Society of Inwood’s history, read shorturl.at/nDPUY.
