Hundreds fill Havemeyer Street for the 137th annual dancing of The Giglio and Boat
Williamsburg's Our Lady of Mount Carmel church has been hosting the raucous event since 1887
Photo by Scott Lynch
For most of its 12-day run, the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast in Williamsburg looks and feels like any other summertime street fair. Coils of sausage sizzle and smoke, mountains of dough get fried, hucksters plead with passersby to play their sucker games, little kids shriek from rickety-looking rides.
But since 1887, the OLMC Feast has also played host to one of Brooklyn’s most chaotic spectacles: the highly ritualized Dancing of the Giglio and Boat, a symbolic reenactment of an encounter that (supposedly) happened in 410 A.D., in the town of Nola, Italy, between Bishop Paolino, a bunch of North African pirates and a Turkish Sultan.
Tradition meets 2024 (Photo by Scott Lynch)
Yesterday was the big lift day this year. Temperatures well above 90 degrees did little to stifle the enthusiasm of the huge crowd on Havemeyer Street, who cheered on a small army of men (and it’s always men) hoisting a 80-foot tall, four-ton, ornately decorated pole up and down the block, plus a less-weighty but still pretty substantial wooden “Boat.”
“The Boat looks small every year,” lifter Thomas Demery told Brooklyn Magazine. “But when you’re under it, it feels five times bigger than it is.”
Lifting (Photo by Scott Lynch)
And it’s not just the physical structures these guys are supporting. Both the Giglio and the Boat also house platforms for a brass band and an emcee who cracks wise (and occasionally breaks into song) throughout the journey. The lifters are expected to make the whole thing “dance” by bouncing it up and down on their extremely sweaty shoulders.
It’s a wild scene, with the bands blasting random tunes (the Star Wars theme was on repeat this year for some reason), the capos directing the action in mock-heroic style, security screaming at the spectators to move out of the way, and the kids up on the Boat raining confetti down on everyone.
On the boat (Photo by Scott Lynch)
The whole thing is very much a family tradition for many of those in attendance. Alan Triolo, who grew up nearby but now lives in Connecticut, told us he’s been lifting for 45 years. And Brooklyn native Brian Ficeto said “my dad was a dedicated lifter for many, many years, and my grandfather did it before him. I’m here today to honor my family and loved ones.”
Danny Vecchiano, this year’s No. 1 Capo (Photo by Scott Lynch)
There are three more lifts still to come during the OLMC feast. The night lift — rebranded this year as “Dancing of the Giglio Under the Stars — happens on Wednesday, July 17. The Children’s Lift is on Thursday evening, July 8, and the Old-Timer’s Lift is during the afternoon of the feast’s final day, Sunday, July 21.
Photo by Scott Lynch
