The annual flag-raising at Boston City Hall for Italian Heritage Month was a quiet affair this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The reading of the State proclamation was made to an empty plaza. Video commentary was instead submitted by Governor Charlie Baker, Lt. Governor Karyn Polito, Mayor Marty Walsh, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Speaker Robert DeLeo, Sen. Joe Boncore, Sen. Sal DiDomenico, Rep. Adrian Madaro, Councilor Lydia Edwards and members of the IHM committee. View the above video of the flag raising followed by the dignitary commentaries.
Philip Frattaroli reflects on the occasion, “Italian Heritage Month in Massachusetts started with a conversation my father Filippo had with his friend Paul Cellucci in 1999. The first flag-raising was five years ago when I received a call from then City Councilor Salvatore LaMattina asking if I had a flag that could be used for the first-ever Italian flag raising at Boston City Hall. I did, but as we all found out together as it rose to the top of a 50 ft. flag poll, it was way too small for the occasion. As it happens, my first child was born a couple of days after that first event. That she was born at a moment when Italian and American flags flew for the first time together in Boston, is very special to me, and why this event means so much to me every year.”
Video compilation by Philip Frattaroli
Seems very incongruous, doesn’t it? In the same week as Columbus being removed?