COLUMBUS DAY: Squilla Invites All To Parade, Festivities

JUDGES and Council candidates formed last year’s Columbus Day Parade line. Among them from left are Judges Rose Marie DeFino, Judge Angelo Foglietta, Councilman Denny O’Brien, Family Court Administrative Judge Kevin Dougherty and Republican Councilman at Large David Oh.

First Dist. Councilman Mark Squilla, this year’s Columbus Day Honorary Chairperson, is inviting everyone to “become Italian For A Day” this Sunday, Oct. 7, and join him and musical legend Grand Marshal Frankie Valli and city political and community leaders at the parade and festival honoring the 2012 Columbus Day.

He cautions, “Parade watchers and participants need to know this year’s parade will kick off from Broad & Moore at noon, rather than from Broad & Federal as in previous years.”

The parade will conclude at the viewing stand on Marconi Plaza, where a major festival will feature fine Italian cuisine and entertainment through the rest of Sunday afternoon.

City Council will present to Squilla, Valli, and members of the Columbus Celebration committee a Resolution at noon tomorrow, followed by a lunch in Room 401. The traditional Columbus Day Mass will be celebrated at 10 a.m. at St. Monica’s Church, 17th & Ritner Streets. Dignitaries will then go to Filitalia, an Italian society, at Passyunk & Mifflin for a continental breakfast.

Frankie Valli, an entertainer of international acclaim, brings with him the allure of six decades in entertainment, beginning in 1960 when he joined Tommy DeVito, Nick Massi, and Bob Gaudio as front man of The Four Seasons. He is well known for his unusually powerful falsetto voice. Valli had 29 Top 40 hits with The Four Seasons and as a solo artist, he had nine Top 40 hits. Valli has supported the National Italian American Foundation, receiving the NIAF Lifetime Achievement Award in 2006. In 2008, NIAF presented a scholarship in his name to an Italian American music student. In May 2012, Valli received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor for his commitment to many humanitarian causes.

Any questions concerning festivities and schedules will be answered by Marie Beren at (215) 686-3458 or via email at marie.beren@phila.gov. Trolleys will be available for those who prefer to ride the parade route.

Looking forward to this year’s celebration as more a participant than an overseer is former City Council President Anna Verna. Together with her late husband, Commendatore Severino Verna, who served as parade marshal for over half a century, Councilwoman Verna was literally singlehandedly responsible for organizing, handling, promoting – and insuring the famous Columbus Day Parade & Festival tradition was well received.

In years past, Columbus Day celebrations here covered the three-day weekend, with banquets, a flag-raising ceremony at Columbus Square and wreath-layings at the statues of Columbus and Marconi.

Columbus Day first became an official state holiday in Colorado in 1906, and became a federal holiday in 1937, though people have celebrated Columbus’ voyage since the colonial period. In 1792, New York City and other US cities celebrated the 300th anniversary of his landing in the New World. President Benjamin Harrison called upon the people of the United States to celebrate Columbus Day on the 400th anniversary of the event.

During the 400th anniversary in 1892, teachers, preachers, poets and politicians used Columbus Day rituals to teach ideals of patriotism. These patriotic rituals were framed around themes such as support for war, citizenship boundaries, the importance of loyalty to the nation, and celebrating social progress.

Catholic immigration in the mid-19th century induced discrimination from anti-immigrant activists. Like many other struggling immigrant communities, Catholics developed organizations to fight discrimination and provide insurance for the struggling immigrants. One such organization, the Knights of Columbus, chose that name in part because it saw Christopher Columbus as a fitting symbol of Catholic immigrants’ right to citizenship: one of their own, a fellow Catholic, had discovered America.

Many Italian Americans observe Columbus Day as a celebration of their heritage, the first occasion being in New York City on Oct. 12, 1866. Columbus Day was first popularized as a holiday in the United States through the lobbying of Angelo Noce, a first-generation Italian, in Denver. The first official, regular Columbus Day holiday was proclaimed by Colorado Gov. Jesse F. McDonald in 1905 and made a statutory holiday in 1907. In April 1934, as a result of lobbying by the Knights of Columbus, Congress and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made Oct. 12 a federal holiday under the name Columbus Day.

Since 1971, the holiday has been fixed to the second Monday in October, coincidentally the same day as Thanksgiving in neighboring Canada.

Last year’s grand marshal was entertainer Joe Piscopo who remembered the courage of his Italian grandparents who carried their life in a suitcase before landing at Ellis Island in New York. “That trek, not knowing anybody in the new land.… All I keep thinking of is that image of my grandparents coming here and it makes me work so much harder today.” Piscopo relished the opportunity to be leading the parade in the nation’s birthplace. “So when I’m acknowledging any way especially in the magnitude of the Columbus Day Parade in Philadelphia with this great Italian-American tradition I honor it and I take it very seriously.”

And in spite of their early indignities Piscopo says Italian immigrants and other immigrants ended up being the backbone of America.

Marconi Plaza, where the parade ends and the festivities begin, is considered an Italian American enclave. Marconi Plaza has two main halves, east and west, which are divided in the middle by Broad Street. It is located at the southernmost end of the city and within the northern border of the Sports Complex Special Services District. The neighborhood is accessible via the Oregon Avenue Station of the Broad Street Subway.

Over 25 vendors will display Italian food, pastries, and other items along with entertainment, all taking place on the west side of the Plaza.

The original design of the Plaza was a terrace styled with influences of landscaped architecture modeling Roman gardens and English gardens. The east and west plaza reflected the same winding pathway,s leading to a raised stepped terrace surrounded by stone railings and entrance sculptures of large urns with two small “reflecting” pools of water facing Broad Street at the center point, which at that time was cut away from the curbline of half circles both on the east and west.

Over the years, many of the fine details have been erased, including the half-circle indented curbline on either side of Broad Street at the center. This location also had on both sides of the plaza, two reflecting pools of water. The pools were filled in to provide the foundation for the two statues that were later erected to support the immigrant Italian community and respond to Anti-Italianism.

A statue of Guglielmo Marconi was erected on the east Plaza though the efforts of the Marconi Memorial Association headed by Dr. Frank P. DiDio. The statue was dedicated on Apr. 25, 1980, to commemorate the 106th anniversary of the birthday of the worl- famous Italian scientist and inventor.

A statue of Christopher Columbus was erected on the west plaza in 1982. This work was originally located along Belmont Avenue in Fairmount Park, having been erected on Oct. 12, 1876. Thought to be the work of Emanuele Caroni, this is said to be first publicly funded monument to Christopher Columbus in the United States.  It was purchased for $18,000 with money raised by Italian Americans and the Columbus Monument Association, through the efforts of Alonzo Viti of Philadelphia and his brothers.

The statue’s initial installation began an annual tradition for the colony of mostly Italian Americans in South Philadelphia to march each year on Columbus Day to the statue in Fairmount Park. The 6-mile (9.7 km) journey was found to be too exhausting and in 1920 the celebration changed locations.

The park is currently lushly covered with 25% trees adorned with park benches, open areas for two tot lots, a baseball field, basketball court, and country-cottage-style enclosed bocce court.

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