Ferragosto Celebration at Garibaldi-Meucci Museum on Sunday, August 15

 On Sunday, August 15, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., as part of the Terza Domenica Heritage Series, the Garibaldi-Meucci Museum will celebrate the Italian summer festival Ferragosto. In keeping with this popular Italian holiday, we will offer games, crafts and activities for the whole family. Museum staff will teach visitors bocce and the Tarantella, and give free tours of the museum-in English and Italian. Admission is free, and there will be delicious food from various regions of Italy available for sale, as well as a selection of Italian wines for the adults to taste. Le Nozze di Carlo will be performing Italian folk and pop music, we'll have some awesome raffles, and will offer face painting by Melissa of FaceArtByMelissa.com for the kids, and kids at heart. Parking will be available at the Church of St. Joseph, 137 St. Mary's Avenue at Tompkins Avenue.

Ferragosto began as Feriae Augusti (Latin for "Festivals of the Emperor Augustus"). In 18 BC, Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus renamed the sixth month of the Roman calendar from Sextilis to Augustus after himself, and declared that the month would be dedicated to a series of festivals and celebrations to mark the end of the summer agricultural cycle.

The most important of these celebrations was dedicated to Diana, the Goddess whose task it was to oversee the woods, the phases of the moon, fertility and maternity. These celebrations were one of the few occasions in which Romans from all walks of life-masters and slaves alike-mingled freely, eating and drinking with great abandon. During this time women also offered prayers to the goddess for protection during childbirth. The Feriae Augusti celebrated other gods as well: Vortumnus, God of the Seasons and the ripening of crops; Conso, the God of the Harvest; and Opeconsiva, who personified the abundant harvest.

While the Feriae were a celebration of fertility and maternity, with the advent of Christianity people turned to the Virgin Mary for help in these matters. But the Feriae festivities were so deeply rooted that, rather than trying to eradicate them, the Roman Catholic Church added to them a Christian focus. By the sixth century AD the 15th of August had become a Holy Day of Obligation to commemorate the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary-the physical elevation of her sinless soul and incorrupt body into Heaven. These celebrations began in the church in Jerusalem that was said to be Her resting place and spread through the rest of the Empire under Mauritius in the late 500s AD. The modern dogma that she was transported to Heaven on Ferragosto took hold in the 18th century, and was only formally proclaimed by Pope Pius XII in 1950.

Today Ferragosto is the peak of the summer holiday season in Italy, when most Italians take brief vacations and many Italians take the entire month as a holiday in honor of this feast day. It is a time for picnics and playing at the beach.
We will be celebrating this Italian summer holiday on our great lawn, so come, eat, drink and be merry in the traditional Italian way. It's a great way for the whole family to spend a summer afternoon together.

The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum is owned and operated by the Order Sons of Italy in America.

The Garibaldi-Meucci Museum was the home of Antonio Meucci, the true inventor of the telephone, and a refuge to Giuseppe Garibaldi, the legendary hero who championed the unification of Italy. For over 50 years the museum has fulfilled its mission to preserve the legacies of these great men, and to promote understanding of the Italian-American heritage through cultural, artistic and educational programs and classes.

Regular museum hours are 1 p.m.-5 p.m., Tuesday through Sunday. Admission is $5 per person, members and children under 10 are free. Call ahead for groups of 10 or more. The first floor of the museum is wheelchair accessible, but the restroom is on the second floor. At press time, program funding has been provided through the Order Sons of Italy in America; by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; the Office of the Staten Island Borough President, Richmond County Savings Foundation; Northfield Bank Foundation, and by grants allocated by New York State Senator Diane Savino and New York City Council members Vincent Ignizio and James Oddo.