By Lois Rogers|Features Editor

Mainstays of the summer season in the Trenton Diocese, parish carnivals, festivals and fairs began whirling across the landscapes of the four counties in May.

click HERE to see photo gallery

Happily for carnival-goers, the Ferris wheels, carousels and bumper cars, games and food booths that lend sparkle and excitement to parish “midways” aren’t scheduled to come to a stop until September.

Well attended night-after-night, whether in the serene town of Tabernacle where organizers expect the 25th annual Pinelands Festival to draw between 30,000 – 40,000 from around Burlington County and beyond to Holy Eucharist Parish, or beside the gently rolling waters of Barnegat Bay in Brant Beach where St. Francis of Assisi Parish will host the Festival of the Sea Carnival from Aug. 7 – 11, these festive events may appear to the casual observer not unlike outings to a contemporary amusement park.

But, scratch the surface, organizers say, and opportunities abound to walk through a window in time and become a kid again – as a flyer from the ‘Nights of Summer’ carnival sponsored by St. Mary Parish, Barnegat, puts it.

Attending these fetes allows all to savor once again the sensation of pink cotton candy melting on the roof of the mouth and the lemony drip of an Italian ice on messy little fingers. It recalls the thrill of winning that fuzzy, stuffed animal from the ring toss booth and screeching all the way through unnerving rides.

And if, as sometimes happened in the four counties of the Trenton Diocese, all that was wrapped up in the radiant smile of a statue of the Madonna borne ceremonially on a litter through the festival by actual knights in stately uniforms, so much the better.

That’s precisely the kind of atmosphere Joe Mignone is looking to create as he and his crew prepare for the second annual Italian Feast of the Assumption at Epiphany Parish, Brick, Aug. 15-18. He envi­sions this celebration, fueled in part by childhood memories of organizers, as a loving trip to a time when summer church festivals honored the patron saints of parishes – and in Europe and Latin America – the patron saints of whole regions and towns.

Mignone grew up in Jersey City where his family belonged to St. Paul of the Cross Parish. He treasures memories of attending the festivals and carnivals in parishes in North Jersey and New York.

“Every year, my father would take us to feasts in parishes in the Bronx, Hoboken and Bayonne and the ‘Big One’ – the Feast of San Gennaro in New York,” he recalled. Mignone remembers being amazed at the number of people who came.

Timed to coincide with the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, the festival will, he hopes, meld devotion to the Blessed Mother with traditional games, rides and a fine festal menu that ranges from the seafood so favored by Italians during this holy time to the typical fare you’d find on a midway – sausages, cheese steaks and the like.

The high point of this feast will come on Sunday, Aug. 18 at noon when the closing Mass will conclude with a procession with a statue of the Blessed Mother lead by an Italian band which, Mignone said, has been polishing it’s collection of “Mary songs. They don’t play bebop. They will be playing (classic) Marian hymns and all of the songs of the Blessed Mother you can think of.”

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights at the “Nights of Summer Carnival” scheduled to run from July 16 through July 21, in St. Mary Parish, Barnegat, it’s become traditional for parishioners to dress in costume as cartoon characters to entertain the many small children who attend.

This year, Woody and Buzz from ‘Toy Story’ will be in attendance, said Cathy Boss, a member of the core planning committee who, like the other members, regards the yearly carnival as a key time to help build a sense of community and faith.

She stressed that the planning committee works hard to keep the event – an annual fund raiser which this year is raising money for All Saints Regional School – family friendly and affordable. A discount coupon for the rides appears in area papers before the carnival, an incentive for families to come and nightly entertainment is offered inside the parish center so that folks don’t have to worry about the weather.

People really get a chance to come together on parish ground, she said, eat with each other, share with each other, enjoy their surroundings, she said. “There are many ways to build community and this is one of them.”

If there’s one thing all of the organizers agree on, it’s that whether feast, festival or carnival, the events wouldn’t have a prayer of success without the volunteers who work for months each year to prepare for them.

Tom Von Holtum, who has been helping to organize the Pinelands Festival in Holy Eucharist for 15 years, took time from the hustle of the final week of preparation before the mega-event which runs nightly from 6 p.m. – 11 p.m. from July 22 through July 27, to praise those volunteers – between 600 and 700 annually – who lend their skills to this venture.

“That’s what it takes every year to make this happen,” he said. In the final, seven-week run-up to the event, the corps of volunteers coordinating the effort includes “electricians, plumbers, finance people, computer people, HVAC people, cooks,” all working at full steam, he said.

“This isn’t just a neck-down affair,” Von Holtum said. “The board of directors works all throughout the year – as soon as this one is over, we’ll be starting on the next one. The people in the parish work hard on this but we have fun and great comradeship. I think you could ask anyone and they would tell you the same thing.”

In St. Leo Parish, Lincroft, one of the many parishes where carnivals were held earlier in the season, Joseph Manzi talked about the fact that all generations are drawn the event as volunteers and attendees.

“The community aspect brings many people of all ages to the carnival,” said Manzi, treasurer of the event for 17 years. “For one thing, it brings the church and (St. Leo the Great School) communities together because the proceeds go to the school.

“This was an opportunity to bring everyone together. Add that to the fact that our church population is getting younger. A lot of new families have stepped up and taken an active interest in the carnival, making new memories for the next generations,” he said. “The committee focused on bringing in attractions geared toward younger children when we realized they were running out of things to do. So, we have rides and games for children aged 10 and younger.”

And he’s pleased to note that many of the volunteers for the event are young people from local high schools including Red Bank Catholic and nearby Christian Brothers Academy. “We get volunteers of all ages and it’s great to have them. The silver haired crowd is a real presence,” the jovial Manzi said.

“I think this is an event that really cements the relationship of the community and the parish,” Manzi said. “When I talk about (the carnival) in the community, people say ‘oh it’s great, it’s clean … It’s a great family event.”