Likely the most popular Italian festival in the Chicago area would have been the parish festival at Our Lady of Mt. Carmel church in Melrose Park. For as long as I can remember, my family simply referred to it as "The Feast."

Here's a link to the web site: http://www.olmcshrine.org/

Someone from my family has been attending for almost as long as the festival has been held, and that's over 100 years. My younger sister took my mom this year...it was her turn. I took mom last year.

The Feast is held the weekend preceeding the actual feast day which I believe is July 16th. There's an outdoor mass followed by a procession through the streets of the Village of Melrose Park back to the church. It's an old world, old school ethnic and religious festival that has NEVER lost its charm. Although the village no longer has the large population of Italians, it is now populated by an equally devoted, and equally Catholic, Hispanic population that have carried on the tradition.

"Didja buy a candle?" I always make sure to "buy a candle" in the church. For a modest donation inside the church, volunteers will light a candle on your behalf. You give them your donation ($5 is the preferred minimum) and a gentleman calls out, "One candle" to an assistant who dutifully lights your devotional candle. Give more money, get more candles...and a more enthusiastic response from the volunteers running the candle altar. When people start to drop a couple of twenties or even a fifty, and the guy sings out "FIVE candles!" and his partner starts firing-up the torch to light all of those candles, you'd swear the church was going up in flames.

Did I mention that the statue, which stands nearly six feet tall, has REAL hair?

Unlike a lot of neighborhood festivals, The Feast still has a decent assortment of food vendors, and they still tend towards Italian food, though I'm waiting for the stuffed pepper with chorizo rather than Italian sausage.

If you wanted to visit one neighborhood festival in Chicago that still captures the spirit of a parish festival, I would recommend the Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel in Melrose Park.

Here's something about The Feast from the Illinois Police and Sheriffs News that sound like the inspiration for a Sopranos episode.

tony b.

...who wishes he had the concession for the Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Barbie Doll.



I am so gonna burn in hell...or at least a little purgatory...