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The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

Dishing up pasta at the Italian Festival, 1978
(2012.201.B0386.0328, Oklahoma Publishing Company Photography Collection, OHS).

ITALIAN FESTIVAL.

Held in McAlester, Oklahoma, the annual Italian Festival began as a commemoration of that nationality's history in the state. Overpopulation and economic difficulties had forced Italians to venture to the United States in the early 1900s. The year 1907 witnessed the highest influx of them, and by 1910, 2,564 resided in Oklahoma. The population concentrated in the southeastern counties where labor shortages in the coal mines offered willing workers income and a better life.

The idea of an Italian Festival originated with Bill Prichard, a local restaurant owner who, along with others, desired to celebrate and preserve the Italian heritage of the region. The first event occurred on October 16, 1971, in McAlester Chadick Park. The two-day, annual affair takes place on Memorial Day weekend. Held at the Pittsburg County Regional Expo Center in McAlester, activities include the crowning of an esteemed community couple as the Re and Regina (king and queen in Italian). Other entertainment entails traditional Italian games like bocce and morra, and of course, a serving of spaghetti finished with spumoni ice cream.

Rebekah Peck

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Kenny L. Brown, The Italians in Oklahoma (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980).

Andrew F. Rolle, The Italian Americans: Troubled Roots (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1980).

Howard F. Stein and Robert F. Hill, eds., The Culture of Oklahoma (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1993).

Citation

The following (as per The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition) is the preferred citation for articles:
Rebekah Peck, “Italian Festival,” The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture, https://www.okhistory.org/publications/enc/entry?entry=IT001.

Published January 15, 2010

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