St. Ann’s Feast ~ Hoboken, NJ

Continuing on with Italian festivals this year (as you may recall, last month was the St. Anthony Feast in Red Bank), I happened upon the first night of the St. Ann Feast in City of Hoboken last Wednesday. This feast is on 7th and Jefferson by the feast’s namesake Church of St. Ann. The feast started 116 years ago by Italian immigrants from Monte San Giacomo - near Salerno in Southern Italy. Connie Francis - a Newark native - used to sing at the feast. You can read more about the history of this feast here: https://stannhoboken.com/feasthistory.

The St. Ann Feast ran from Wednesday to Sunday, with the culmination of a procession of the Saint through the streets of Hoboken and mass at the church. Live music was present each night, along with feast favorites like their famous home made zeppole (the line for those was very long). There are also rides for the kids. My favorite was the sausage and brocolli rabe sandwich on the best Italian bread I’ve ever had at a feast. I was also amazed at the amount of people that were at the feast on a hot Wednesday evening.

The neighborhood where the feast is located is clean, safe and residential. There is plenty of parking and small corner restaurants, bars and cafès that all looked amazing. On my walk back to my car, I stopped in snackbar_hoboken where it was trivia night. It was a fun group of people, relaxing and I came in 2nd place!

I could not leave Hoboken without viewing the magnificent Manhattan Skyline at Frank Sinatra Park. This is not the last Italian festival in Hoboken this year. The Feast of Madonna Dei Martiri is from September 10-13 and I will definitely attend! Also, stay tuned for my next planned Italian Feast visit in Boston next month.