The 124th annual Feast of Maria Santissima Lauretana in Niles attracted an estimated 5,000 people from Friday to Sunday at a park immediately south of Golf Mill Shopping Center. Though its Catholic religious roots are part of its identity, it also offered food, drink, entertainment, booths, a carnival and fun.
On Sunday, for the mass, the Procession of the Blessed Mother and the Flight of the Angels, the weather featured blue skies and breezy temperatures in the mid 70 degree range.
“It’s beautiful today, I mean, it couldn’t be any better,” said Mike Lima of Round Lake, one of the co-chairs who announced events as the Sunday afternoon procession began.
The Feast of Maria Santissima Lauretana is one of Chicago’s largest and longest-running Italian festivals and features food, entertainment, carnival rides and games, live music, a traditional Sicilian band and the popular Flight of the Angels.
The feast honors Mary, the Blessed Mother as honored in the town of Altavilla Milicia, in the Italian region of Sicily. The tradition is more than 400 years old there, and immigrants from that town brought the tradition to Chicago when they arrived more than 124 years ago.
The tradition tells of the history of a painting featuring the Catholic Virgin Mary which washed ashore more than four centuries ago on the Sicilian coastline near Altavilla Milicia, according to previous reporting. After townspeople discovered it, they considered its arrival a miraculous event and launched the construction of a church and shrine.
At the fest in Niles, people offer prayers in front of a replica of the painting displayed among flowers in the shrine tent.
This image of the Virgin Mary was brought from the tent to a large statue-carrying platform, which was hoisted by about 20 men wearing the traditional dark-red costumes of the Maria Santissima Lauretana Society. They carried it down the midway, for Sunday’s two Flight of the Angels recitations, one scheduled for 5 p.m. and the other at 8 p.m. Once they reached the two large scaffolds that had been set up, they stopped while society leaders and the two young girls playing the angels got ready for the big moments, with the girls climbing up the scaffolds to platforms where they would don harnesses in preparation for the “flight.”
For both flights, Tessa Camarda, 8, a third-grader from Glenview, wore the blue angel dress and Chloe Hartl, 10, a fifth-grader from Round Lake, wore the pink angel dress.
“It just makes me feel good and special,” Tessa Camarda said about taking part as an angel.
Chloe Hartl said, “It’s really fun because I got to do it last year and I just like flying; that’s been my dream to fly ever since I was little.”
Angelo Camarda of Elmwood Park is festival chairman of the Maria Santissima Lauretana Society of Altavilla Milicia in Chicago, which hosts the feast.
“We are both grateful and excited to be celebrating our 124th annual Feast here in Niles,” Camarda said.
“We deeply appreciate the support from the village, park district and the people of Niles.”
Camarda said humanity needs the blessed mother.
“The world needs salvation,” he said. “We need someone to watch over us and protect us, watch over everybody in the world, just make sure that we are all safe.”
Vince Angelilli of Elmwood Park attended with daughter Alexis Angelilli of Park Ridge and her son Luciano Klepadlo, 1.
“It’s so wonderful for the tradition of the Italian community,” Vince Angelilli said.
“This is one of the Italian fests that we’ve been a part of since I was his (Luciano’s) age.
“It’s very meaningful to us, and I couldn’t be more proud of the Italian community and more happy to be here.”
