Immaculate Heart of Mary Cathedral once again hosting annual Harvest Festival this weekend

Immaculate Heart of Mary Cathedral’s annual Harvest Festival is back this weekend after a four-year delay by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The parish is the cathedral of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces and located in the center of the city. For decades, members of the parish have organized an annual fall festival to bring the community together and raise money to support the church’s programs and general upkeep.

The Harvest Festival will be held from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21 and from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 22 and is free to attend.

Edward Fragoso, organizer and longtime member of the church, explained that the Las Cruces parishes used to hold their annual fiestas during the summer but the heat made it hard to put the event together. Immaculate Heart then started hosting a raffle to raise money for the church.

When the raffle started getting stale, Fragoso pitched the idea of a fall carnival.

“I says, ‘why don’t we do a carnival to start off with. Let’s do it in the fall and mostly for family and we can use all the rooms here and the school,’” Fragoso recalled. “It was a lot and it created a lot of fellowship among the people of the parish. And we decided well, no matter if we don’t make a lot of money, but we got together as a family and we all got closer with each other.”

The carnival was a hit and soon evolved into the annual Harvest Festival.

Volunteers and members of the various parish ministries set up dozens of booths offering food, purchasable items and games for attendees. The festival is a popular event each fall among not only Immaculate Heart of Mary congregants, but the larger community as well.

“I think the joy is that what we are doing here, we are helping to raise money for the church,” said Pawn Stewart, a longtime volunteer of the festival. “We try to do everything in God's name that everybody comes in united together in prayer. That's the most important thing.”

The event was put on hold for several years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Fragoso stepped away from organizing several years before to care for his wife.

“Now that I’m alone … all my brothers and sisters from this parish, they encouraged me to get involved so we could do (the festival),” he said.

People can expect to find booths serving hot dogs, hamburgers, gorditas, frito pies and Stewart’s highly popular spring rolls, as well as jumping houses for children.

A DJ and mariachi music will provide live entertainment. Las Cruces Codes Enforcement will be on site for children to ride bicycles and to teach bicycle safety. A silent auction will also be held.

Stewart emphasized that the Harvest Festival is not just a fundraiser, but a spiritual communion among members of the church in a safe place.

“We are coming here because we have so much faith that we do all of this by faith,” Stewart said.

Immaculate Heart of Mary Cathedral is located at 1240 S. Espina St. All are welcome to attend the festival.

Leah Romero is the trending reporter at the Las Cruces Sun-News and can be reached at 575-418-3442, LRomero@lcsun-news.com or @rromero_leah on X, formerly Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Immaculate Heart of Mary Cathedral once again hosting annual Harvest Festival