giglio festival

I remember when I saw the banners appear across Havemeyer St. The tower sat in the street by Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, waiting for the festivities to begin. Food carts and carnival games began setting up and my thoughts turned to grilled sausage and pepper sandwiches. It was nearly time for the Giglio Festival.

Each year, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church celebrates with the feast that honors both Our Lady of Mt. Carmel and San Paolino. The festival last two weeks and always ends on July 16, with a procession of the statue of Our Lady on a flowered float through the neighborhood.

The real draw happens twice during the festival when neighborhood men carry a platform with an obscenely heavy and tall tower (and a brass band) up and down the streets in front of the church. The tower is decorated with lilies (gigli) and has a statue of San Paolino on top. Who is San Paolino and why is he celebrated here with a festival named after flowers?

(Since you asked…)

Nearly 1,600 years ago, the Huns invaded Italy. San Paolino rescued all the children from his town, but upon returning discovered he had missed one child, who was taken by the Huns’ leader. San Paolino promptly traded his freedom for that of the little boy. He served as the slave of the Huns’ leader for several years and after dutiful service was released. Upon his return to the shores of Nola, the townspeople presented him with lilies.

After his death, the town would mark his passing by marching lilies to the church each year on his saint day, June 22, and holding a feast. This procession eventually evolved into more and more elaborate displays as the centuries passed.

When Italian immigrants began arriving in large numbers during the late 1800’s to America, many from Nola settled in Williamsburg. They brought their centuries-old tradition of honoring San Paolino with them.

In 1887, the local Italian church, Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, began holding a feast for their namesake, the Virgin, on her saint day, July 16. The two feasts were held separately, yet only weeks apart from each other, for more than half a century. In 1957, the neighborhood decided to combine both into the single festival we know today.

Today, the festival is nearly a cultural institution for the city. Thousands of people come to watch the “Dance of the Giglio” (the parade of the tower) and enjoy the carnival atmosphere. Some even come from as far as Nola itself, taking this opportunity to visit family members in the neighborhood they have not seen for years.

However, it is also a religious celebration. As Father Fonti, pastor of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Church, explained, “While the neighborhood men participate in carrying the Giglio because it honors their family, it also allows them to remember the Italian family that came to this country so many years ago and carried the Catholic faith with them. Traditions are sacred in this neighborhood.”

Father Fonti is a newcomer of sorts, assuming the role of pastor in the fall of 2001. However, he also grew up in Brooklyn, and remembers his family bringing him to the festival as a boy. With all the new faces in the neighborhood, and people from other parts of New York coming to witness the Giglio, Father Fonti is excited. “The feast has an Italian base, and therefore an Italian spirit. That means a spirit of inclusion to everyone, a feeling of family.”