Holy Ghost Club of Sodom Road: the challenge of bringing immigrant traditions into the 21st century

  

 
WESTPORT — The 76th annual Feast of the Holy Ghost went off without a hitch this July. Like a good bowl of sopas, there was a heap of prep work that went into making the annual "festa" a big success.

All day Friday, men spent hours in the club's main kitchen cutting, seasoning, and saucing beef and chourico for the "carne" to be roasted. In the next room, a revolving committee of women peeled hundreds of potatoes, scores of cabbages and kale, and squinted with watery eyes as they minced bags and bags of onions— some of the ingredients for sopas, the traditional Portuguese soup served at every feast.

Club member Barbara Medieros made 40 quarts of favas, the tasty beans that helped assure that no one was going to leave the club's pavilion hungry after the feast that would follow the Sunday procession from Ridgeline Drive to the Holy Ghost Club on Sodom Road.

"Many people call it a parade, but we call it a procession because it's a religious event," said Frank Lopes, the club president, as he and six helpers prepared the 22 huge pans of marinated 'carne' about to enter the ovens.

He also served as the marshal of this year's procession. "It can be nerve-wracking, keeping everyone on the same page. I'm always relieved when it's over," he said with a wink.

Mr. Lopes worries that the feast tradition is fading out. The number of Holy Ghost Clubs in the area has dwindled to three; in a recent election, some positions were unopposed, and a few positions had no candidates willing to run.

It's a scenario faced by many of the old traditions that immigrants brought to America from the old country several generations ago.

As a way to attract possible new members, organizers set up an inflatable "bounce house" to give parents an energy outlet for their young kids. Indeed, the colorful inflatable jiggled all afternoon. But is it enough?

Club treasurer Frank Ray reflected on the changing times as he took a break from preparing the 'carne' on Friday. He played trombone in middle school, and can remember his band playing at nearly a dozen Holy Ghost Feasts every year in Fall River and Somerset.

"The older generation brought this tradition to America, but their children were brought up to be American," he said. "There is so much more for young kids to do now than there was in the '50s and '60s. In those days, going to festival was a good family plan for the weekend. Now parents have so much more to do."

And the younger generation moves around more, he noted. "People used to stay put and had one career job. Kids now might have two or three jobs in their first 10 years. It breaks up the family orientation as they move away after they finish college," Mr. Ray said.

The feast is one of many events the Holy Ghost Club sponsors. When first-time visitors come to other events and comment on what a good setting the organization has, they just might be asked if they'd like to join the club.

"At our annual "Wish Come True" weekend, the 15th coming this September, we've recruited a couple dozen members over the years. People donate time to help put on the event. When we see them working so hard as volunteers we know they'd be good prospects to join the Holy Ghost Club, and we ask if they'd be interested," Mr. Ray said.

In time, the younger members like Frank Ray, his wife Wendy, and people like Wayne Nunes will take over. Nunes, who cheerfully served sopas at the Sunday festa, has been a member for 12 years.

"I'm the 'outside man'," he grinned as he laid red paper over the long picnic tables under the pavilion on that Sunday morning. Later, he could be seen swooping down cramped aisles to deliver bowls of sopas to hungry guests.

Mr. Nunes, a carpenter by trade, redid the kitchen area last year.

In the meantime, members like 84 year-old Alice Harrison connect the past to the present. "My mother met my father at the feast one year, and married him the next year," she said. "They were devoted members of the club and brought us up that way too."

Times change. Eventually the old guard will disappear, and it will be up to the next generation to keep the tradition alive.

They have their work cut out for them, but they seem ready to take their places and serve their community for another generation.

Comments

[Roz]

Well said.