San Gennaro may be the beloved namesake of the annual feast in Manhattan's Little Italy, but it's the world-famous cannoli eating contest that is among its most venerated highlights. The 85th Annual San Gennaro Feast, New York City’s longest-running, biggest and most revered religious outdoor festival in the United States, is held Thursday, September 15, through Sunday, September 25, 2011, on the streets of historic Little Italy, the lower Manhattan neighborhood which served as the first home in America for hundreds of thousands of Italian immigrants who came here seeking to improve their lives beginning in the early part of the 20th century.