And to think that I saw it on Mulberry Street, or, The Feast of San Gennaro

San Gennaro is the patron saint of Naples, and his effigy (Catholics, is that what you call it?) is kept in the Church of the Most Sacred Blood in Little Italy in lower Manhattan.

His official feast day isn't until next week, but it's celebrated for 12 days in the biggest outdoor festival in the country. It kicked off with a cannoli-eating contest on Friday, which, alas, I missed, but I did get to attend Saturday's parade, which went down Mulberry Street in Little Italy and lasted about ten minutes.

On normal days, there are charming Italian restaurateurs who call remark on how "bella" you happen to be and use that as an argument for why you should eat in their restaurant. During the Feast, which apparently will attract over a million people as it runs its course, they were in their heyday. (I got a slice of pizza to go, which seemed to disappoint many of them.) There were also stands selling Italian sausages, pizza, cookies, torrone, and cannoli everywhere, and of course lots of Italian-themed souvenirs.

I wandered into a store that sold kitchenware as the proprietress was helping another customer. "'Ey! Uncle Eddie! (That guy's Uncle Eddie.) This lady wants to sell 'er house! She needs a Saint Joseph!" Then, in an almost conspiratorial tone to the woman, "Now whatcha wanna do is bury 'im upside down, got that?" Catholics.

Also noteworthy was one of the many donation boxes set into the wall of the church. Other donations could go to poor children or foreign missionaries, but at this box your funds purportedly get shipped all the way to the souls in Purgatory, because apparently that's a) possible, and b) going to help them out down there. I wonder if they use USD in limbo. Perhaps there's a money-changer there.

What's cool about that part of New York is that a lot of the ethnic parts of town are squashed together. By crossing one street, I went from Little Italy to Chinatown where I purchased some things from an Asian food market that I learned to love in Japan and picked up some really cheap produce as well. I'm told that if I kept going in the right direction I would have come to Japantown as well. Three continents in two days! Can't beat the New York subway.

So, despite the weather, a good day, although there is definitely such a thing as too many cannolis.