Saint Anthony Feast This Weekend

Last weekend we enjoyed Greek food at the Grecian Festival at the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation in Vestal. This weekend, it's all about the Italian food as St. Anthony's Church in Endicott celebrates their feast days Friday, Saturday, and Sunday at the church on Odell Avenue.

My wife and I try to go to as many of the local church bazaars and feast days as we can. Not only does it help out the churches, it saves us from cooking that night. We always run into people we know that we haven't seen in a while, and get caught up on everything going on with them. St. Anthony's Bazaar always has great Italian food, live entertainment, and the casino room in the basement of the church. There's also a kids area that wraps around the church where the kids can try their hand at various games to win prizes. Not only do Chris and I go there to have dinner and a couple of drinks, but my friend Mike always signs me up to volunteer for cleanup duty.

Mike is one of the leaders of a Boy Scout Troop in Endicott and the church donates money to that Boy Scout Pack in exchange for the troop cleaning up each night of the event, and helping to take everything down on Sunday. I've never been a Boy Scout, Ian was a boy scout for a few years many years ago, I don't even belong to that church, but every year my friend Mike guilts me into helping him help the kids. Friday and Saturday night we are armed with leaf blowers and brooms as we clean under the big tent as well as the streets surrounding the church. We usually finish up around 1 or 1:30 in the morning. Then on Sunday, after the bazaar ends,  we help to take down all the booths, move the bleachers, and take down the tents. I'm usually up there every year helping him with that as well.

So if you go to Saint Anthony's this weekend, make sure you say hi if you see me. For more information on St Anthony's Italian Feast Days check out their website.

[via St. Anthony of Padua]