Giglio Feast Every July a few typically sleepy residential streets in Williamsburg erupt into a festival of lights, food, music, and parades. This is, of course, the annual celebration sponsored by Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church, also known as the Giglio Feast. Since so many of us have enjoyed the sights and sounds (and funnel cakes) of this week-long event, it is only prudent that we take a moment to look into the origin and history of this Italian-American tradition. Since 1954 the Feast has been combined with a second traditional feast honoring Our Lady of Saint Carmel. Celebrated in July, the feast lasts for 12 days and includes religious ceremonies, a street fair, games, food and fundraising for the church. One of the important activities of the Feast is the “Questua” a tradition that begins at 5am, when loaves of bread are picked up from a local bakery. Over the next twelve hours volunteers walk for miles through the street, distributing bread to local families. The following day is Giglio Sunday, which begins with another procession to pick up important Feast participants and ends at the church for a special Giglio Mass. After a breakfast, it’s time for the lifting and procession of the Giglio. The Giglio Feast celebrates a selfless act of bravery by Bishop Paolino, who lived in the small Italian city of Nola in the early 5th century. The city was invaded by pirates in 410 AD, and although the Bishop escaped, he returned to find that many of the city’s young men had been sold into slavery. The Bishop offered himself to the pirates in exchange for the release of one of the men, the son of a local widow. The pirates accepted and took the Bishop prisoner instead. The tale of his courage reached the ears of a Turkish ruler, who was so moved by his sacrifice that he arranged for the Bishop’s freedom. When he returned to Nola he was greeted by the townspeople carrying lilies. Gigli, Italian for lily, traditionally represented love and purity and came to symbolize the Bishop’s selflessness. The procession of lilies became an annual event in Nola, with local merchants competing for the most elaborate display. Over the years the Giglio has evolved into a 4 ton, 65 foot high pyramid of papier-mâché, styrofoam and flowers depicting saints, angels and on the top, Saint Paolino. The Giglio rests on a platform that also supports several musicians and their instruments. In front of a cheering crowd, 112 men lift and “dance” the Giglio to music provided by the band, including the Feast’s traditional song, “O' Giglio 'e Paradiso.” In addition to cheering on the lifters, Giglio Sunday attendees can expect a street fair with games, rides and food. This is a time for tradition, community and fun; a time for people who have moved away from Williamsburg to come home.

Children at play outside No. 213 North 7th Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, April 26, 1915.

Church of the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary. August 9, 1935. The Lombardian Romanesque Roman Catholic Church was completed in 1870. Originally a German parish, the church was purchased by a coalition of Lithuanian Catholics in 1914. Today, the church provides English, Lithuanian, and Spanish-language services.

"In the fall of 1975, Williamsburg-Greenpoint residents faced plans to eliminate schools, libraries, police stations, fire stations, bus lines, and hospitals. Angry about the planned cuts, as well as about noise and pollution from the expressway and leaking sewers at the derelict Brooklyn Navy Yard, residents conducted a series of dramatic protests. Encouraged by \[Mobilization for Youth (MFY) social worker Jan] Peterson, Northside residents mobilized a long-term campaign to save their local firehouse, No. 212, which the city planned to close in November 1975 when it reduced its firefighting force by 900…With the aid of the local firefighters, residents organized an eighteen-month-long civil disobedience campaign designed to keep the firehouse open. On Thanksgiving Day 1975, when fire commissioner John T. O’Hagan sent a crew of twenty-four to remove Engine 212, more than 200 residents occupied the station, holding the engine and the firemen hostage. The next day, after negotiations with O’Hagan, the residents set the firemen free but continued to occupy the firehouse, which they renamed People’s Firehouse No. 1." For more on this story, check out this excerpt from Tamar Carroll's Mobilizing New York in Gotham: A Blog for Scholars of New York City History.

261 Bedford Avenue, ca. 1923. Though called the Greenpoint Bathhouse in a number of sources, this building is firmly located in Williamsburg. Design by Henry Bacon, architect of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C., the structure was opened in 1922. Saved from demolition in 1983 by an intrepid city Parks and Recreation Commissioner named Henry J. Stern, the facility remains a community pool and recreation center. The ceiling above the pool is a striking peaked skylight surrounded by a pressed copper ceiling. The entire building, including the natatorium, had a major renovation in the late 1990s.