Crowds turn out to honour St Sophia

A LARGE crowd gathered on Sunday, 23 October as St John the Baptist Parish celebrated the 32nd St Sophia Festival at Kooweerup.
As in previous years, local Italian families welcomed several busloads of visitors from Melbourne, all sharing the common bond of their devotion to ‘Santa Sophia’ the patron saint of Sortino, in Sicily.
The festival, held in September in Sortino, is closely recreated in Kooweerup in October, complete with fireworks, a street procession and a day of festivities.
An Italian Mass was celebrated by Fr Gaetano of Lysterfield, fireworks sounded and the St Sophia statue was carried from the church and paraded through the streets to the sound of the ‘Bellini’ Marching Band.
When the procession returned to the churchgrounds, a wonderful festival atmosphere was created as the St Sophia festivities continued in conjunction with all the activities of St John’s school fete.
The day was certainly an example of true multiculturalism as the Italian band entertaining the luncheon crowd, paused to allow local students to perform an Irish dancing demonstration.
This was closely followed by a performance by an Italian folk group, Sicilia Bella. All this as sausages, hamburgers and asparagus sizzled on the barbecue in true Aussie style, a Tai Chi Class was taking place and a crowd gathered around a cow in an enclosure on the oval, patiently awaiting the results of the ‘Cow Lotto’ competition.
To the credit of all those involved in the planning and coordination of the day, the combined festival and fete was a wonderfully, successful community event.