The newspaper is headed into our 31st year of publication. We continue to give 100 percent of our time to the Italian community and we are always looking at ways to improve.
This year, a big goal of ours is to increase our online presence. We are also looking at ways to incorporate online advertising to our customers and offer more to our online subscribers. We always appreciate the feedback of our readers.
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Happy Mother’s Day to all of our Mammas, Nonnas and Zias out there. Enjoy your very special day.
As we celebrate another year with La Gazzetta, we wanted to share one of our beloved late editor Paul Sciria’s editorials from May 2014. Please enjoy and thank you to all of you for making 31 years a success.
I like to believe that cinema history’s most memorable wedding scenes appeared in the 1972 movie classic, “The Godfather.” The most basic and key objective in the storyline was to establish that in Italy, nothing is more important than family (la famiglia); and a daughter’s wedding day reinforces that identity.
The first of two scenes in movie is the outdoor wedding reception of mob boss, Vito Corleone’s daughter on Staten Island. The film opens with an elaborate outdoor wedding reception, which takes place against the backdrop of traditional songs, dancing and a gigantic wedding cake.
Italian weddings typically overflow with homemade wine, food, family, friends and music, and the Corleone wedding was no exception. An opening grabber in the movie is the Sicilian wedding folksong favorite “Chen a luna mezza mare” (The Moon is in the Middle of the Sea/Lazy Mary) sung by mamma Corleone and Don Stracci. Every Italian wedding I’ve attended has featured this song along with the “busta” (money envelope). However, I’m not sure if this tradition continues at the more formal weddings of today.
The Corleone wedding featured pop star Johnny Fontane (Al Martino) singing a couple of songs. Years ago, I was invited to a lavish wedding at the downtown Cleveland Statler Hotel, and Louie Prima was the surprise entertainer.
More typical of an old country wedding, that of Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) and Apollonia took place in Forza D’Agro some 50 kilometers north of Catania. There was a procession to the church, which symbolized the journey of marriage, followed by the ceremony and procession of relatives, friends, flower girls and musicians through the streets. The reception realistically portrayed an Italian reception, right down to the sugar-coated almonds (la bomboniera).
