It’s that time of year when we celebrate Williamsburg’s Giglio Festival — the ONLY thing that has not changed in the neighborhood in the past decade. The festivities start on Thursday July 10 with three lifts scheduled beginning on Sunday.
- Wednesday July 10th, Opening Night Mass | 7pm
- Thursday, July 11th Kids Giglio | 6:30pm
- Saturday, July 13th | La Questua 10am
- Sunday, July 14th GIGLIO SUNDAY | 11:30am Mass 1:30pm First Lift
- Tuesday July 16th, OLMC Feast Day (Please see OLMC Feast Day Section for more Info)
- Wednesday July 17th, Night Giglio Lift | 7:30pm
- Sunday July 21st, Old Timers Day Giglio Lift | 1pm
If you’ve never attended, here’s a little background from Greenpointers:
“The Giglio used locally in the yearly celebration is a seven-story tower composed of aluminum, papier-mâché, and plastic painted and decorated with gigli and the image of St. Paulinus. A platform at the base of the tower supports a twelve-piece brass band and singer. The entire assemblage—tower and band—is hoisted and carried by 112 dancing and marching men, the paranza (lifters). A separate boat, complete with fitted mast, sail, and rigging, represents the ship that returned St. Paulinus from captivity. Like the Giglio, it has a band and singer and is also carried and danced through the streets. Members of the Vecchiano Festival Band perform on both the Giglio and the “boat.”
Marching band music accompanies the Giglio for much of the way as it is carried along the procession route, but it is the Giglio song that actually makes the Giglio dance. The Giglio’s route is punctuated by a series of “lifts,”by brawny Italian Americans from the area, which last roughly three minutes and cover approximately thirty feet. Each lift begins with the official feast song, written in Williamsburg and used since 1959, “O Giglio e Paradiso.” The band ends the music to the first stanza with a crescendo, the Capo raises his cane, and the 112 lifters become the single paranza that lifts the Giglio off the ground and then makes the structure dance.”
More information at olmcfeast.com