Scenes from Williamsburg's chaotic, joyous Giglio lift

If you missed out, there are two more lifts this week at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel feast

A Williamsburg tradition since 1903, the annual Giglio Feast hosted by Our Lady of Mount Carmel church serves up 12 days and nights of fairly standard street feast fare, like braciole, cigars, carnival games with crappy prizes, sausage and peppers, rickety-looking rides, zeppole, fried clams, and beer.

The twist here though — and what brings thousands of people back to the neighborhood year after year on the feast’s first Sunday — are the highly ritualized Giglio Lifts, which symbolize an encounter, in 410 AD in the Italian town of Nola, between Bishop Paolino, North African pirates and a Turkish Sultan. You don’t need to know any of the details to appreciate the crazy spectacle of the event, though.

(Scott Lynch)

Giglio Sunday, as the day of the big lift is called, works like this: a large group of burly men gather at one end of Havemeyer Street and get under an 80-foot-tall, four-ton Giglio tower carrying “Paolino.” At the other end of the block another group of guys hoist a boat, upon which sails this year’s honorary Turk and his confetti-tossing comrades.

An entire band also climbs up on each of these enormous structures, and, spurred on by the comically urgent commands of the capos, the Giglio and the Turk are bounced and turned and hoisted towards each other for about 90 minutes until they meet in front of the church. For many of those lifting, or cheering, the day is really about carrying on a family and community tradition that, in some cases, goes back generations.

(Scott Lynch)

“My grandparents were from Nola, Italy, where the feast originated,” Joy Mangone tells Brooklyn Magazine. “And when they came to America they settled on North 6th Street. I was born around the corner on Metropolitan Avenue, and I married a gentleman from Union Avenue, who was one of the past Capo Paranzas [the festival leader], as was his father.”

“So these are my roots, these are my people,” she says. “It’s so special because it’s all about family, and if you’re from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, it’s not only your blood relatives who are your family, but also the people you grew up with, and your grandparents’ friends, and your parents’ friends, and their children, and their children … you know everyone, and you love everyone.”

(Scott Lynch)

There are two more lifts scheduled this week, the Night Lift on Wednesday, July 13, at 7 p.m., and the Old Timer’s Lift on Sunday, July 17, at 3, which is also the final day of the feast. All of this is located on the streets around Old Lady of Mount Carmel church, located on the corner of Havemeyer and North 8th Streets.

Here are a few more scenes from Sunday’s lift.