Meet the heaving, huffing ‘lifters' who hoist the 4-ton Giglio at Brooklyn's wild bacchanal: 'By the time the day is over, you're just dead'
An Italian Brooklyn tradition for over a century, Williamsburg's Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast draws hundreds of thousands to an annual bacchanal of sausage, peppers and spectacle, courtesy of the festival's main character — the gigantic Giglio, a four-ton, 72-foot statue 'danced' through sweltering streets by a team of 120 men known as 'lifters.'
'Few places on Earth still have anything like this — people come from all over to see it, and we're getting bigger and bigger every year,' Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello, a longtime organizer of the high-in-the-sky happening, told The Post of the event — which kicks off for nearly two weeks on Wednesday, July 9, for its 138th edition.
19 'Lifters' hoist the statue during the 2004 event.
Matthew McDermott
19 The Giglio towers over the large crowd gathered below for the 2009 festival.
19 'Few places on earth still have anything like this — people come from all over to see it, and we're getting bigger and bigger every year,' Monsignor Jamie Gigantiello (pictured) told The Post.
KEVIN C DOWNS
The dancing of the colossal Giglio, taking place several times over the course of the festival, began in Williamsburg in 1887 — continuing a 1,500-year-old tradition brought to America by Italian immigrants from Nola in the Campania region that honors Saint Paolino.
As legend has it, aside from renouncing his riches, Paolino once exchanged places with a young prisoner in the first century — and the masses have been going to great lengths to honor him ever since, often flaunting his trademark lilies. ['Giglio' — pronounced jeel-e-o — is the Italian word for 'lily.']
19 Joey Aragona stands near the statue of St. Paulinus of Nola at the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
Stefano Giovannini
Paying tribute to a saint isn't all fun and galamad, however.
'By the time the day is over, you're just dead — your body is just exhausted,' fifth-generation 'lifter' Joey Aragona, 32, told The Post of the heavy task of carrying the statue around in sometimes punishing July heat.
'It's both a joy and a penance'
19 Willy Grillo shows how the 'boat' is lifted outside of Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in preparation for the event.
Stefano Giovannini
Not that there's anything wrong with that, he hastened to add — calling the procession 'a very proud thing to be a part of.'
In fact, Aragona has been on the team since childhood — continuing a tradition started by his great-great-grandfather.
'I started lifting the Kid's Giglio when I was 4 years old,' he said, referencing a much smaller tower created for the young participants — who then subsequently work up the ranks to become festival 'capos' and 'lieutenants' as future adults.
19 A 'lifter' strains to carry the Giglio during the 100th-anniversary celebration in 2003.
Helayne Seidman
19 Musicians serenade as 'lifters' do their thing.
Freelance
19 Some 'lifters' start carrying from a young age.
LightRocket via Getty Images
As a band plays, helping lift the massive tower is both a huge honor — and a major challenge.
'Basically, it's both a joy and a penance,' said Pat Fevola, who has been a 'lifter' since 1976. He's so devoted to the tradition, he got inked with a tattoo of the Giglio on his left forearm.
'All of the lifters become family,' he told The Post of the intense experience, which includes devotional masses. 'That's why we call it Christmas in July.'
19 'Basically, it's both a joy and a penance,' said Pat Fevola, who has been a 'lifter' since 1976.
Stefano Giovannini
19 Fevola is so dedicated, he even got a tattoo of the tower along with the words 'Always Under.'
Stefano Giovannini
19 The ornate Giglio is shown under construction before this year's festival.
Stefano Giovannini
Formerly made of wood, the Giglio has been composed of aluminum since 1966. It takes approximately 300 hours to build a new one each year.
Construction typically begins back in October.
The Gig gig is big
19 The Giglio towers over the festival crowd in this file photo.
Freelance
19 Members of a brass and reed band are seated at the base of the massive statue in 1987.
Getty Images
The feast proudly marches on, despite recent seismic shifts in the neighborhood's longtime Italian influence.
Last year, nearby Frost Restaurant (open since 1959) shuttered. Just last month, Napoli Bakery (founded in 1981) also closed its doors — both part of a woeful city-wide trend of beloved Italian-American businesses packing up and leaving NYC.
'There was a time there when interest in the feast was winding down,' admitted Monsignor Gigantiello of the effects of gentrification on the neighborhood.
19 Hoisting the Giglio is a tremendous group effort.
Helayne Seidman
19 Attendants prepare to move the Giglio in 2021 after a pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Corbis via Getty Images
Now, however, thanks to social media, he explained, the event is drawing 'record-breaking crowds' — with an average attendance of approximately 100,000 festival-goers per year.
That makes it the second-largest Italian feast in New York — behind Little Italy's long-running San Gennaro Feast, which pulls in a million or more visitors at a pop.
'It used to be that we put up posters and sent out mailers to addresses of the parishioners to invite people,' Gigantiello said. 'Today, people from all over are hearing about it online and want to come and see what it's like.'
'I always say I'll get in trouble, but I think we're the best one because it's still a neighborhood feast,' the proud Father boasted.
East Harlem also has a Giglio event of their own. Founded in 1908, that one happens in August, albeit over a single weekend
Over in Massapequa, they're also preparing for a much smaller Giglio Feast at the end of July.
The Williamsburg street festival even serves as a homecoming for the neighborhood's former residents.
'The tradition has lasted so long … due to it being the central point of our Italian community for over a century,' festival lieutenant John Perrone told The Post.
'Many of us return from other areas — Queens, Long Island, New Jersey — to continue the tradition on our native streets,' he said.
Aside from the people, even the streets that line the festival have transformed over time. Gone are the quaint two-story homes, with luxe apartment towers now popping up like lilies in their place.
'It has become much more challenging with all of the new construction, with new people moving into the neighborhood who don't like the noise and the interruption in front of their door,' Gigantiello confided.
Aside from the throngs of crowds and music, the festival also features carnival games and rides.
'But we try to be good neighbors. Rather than fighting with them, we try to engage with them,' Gigantiello said.
19 Preparations begin outside the church as a helper carries a statue of St. Paulinus of Nola.
Stefano Giovannini
19 Fevola has a collection of Giglio T-shirts.
Stefano Giovannini
19 A band serenades the crowd as 'lifters' move through the street in 1987.
Getty Images
'When a building goes up, I'll talk to developers and landlords and explain to them we've been doing this for 100 years.'
Said lifter Fevola: 'People might complain, but it's like moving next to a firehouse and you get mad when the sirens go off at night.'
Ciao down
19 The event is a huge celebration every year.
Helayne Seidman
Longtime feast vendors who have been serving the festival for generations include Dee Best Zeppole, which has been fried up and doused with powdered sugar by the local Donatelli family since 1923.
There's also Lucy's Sausage and Peppers, another longtime NYC festival mainstay.
This year, entertainment will be provided by the likes of 'America's Got Talent' finalist Sal 'The Voice' Valentinetti and Bruce Springsteen cover band Promised Land.
Parlaying its recent success and storied history, this year Gigantiello and his team published a book through the church reflecting on the tradition: 'Mt. Carmel Brooklyn: The Heart and Soul of America's Feast.'
Featuring a treasure trove of archival photos, the volume will naturally be available during the festival.
As for the confab's future, Gigantiello pledges: 'The feast is secure as long as the Parish is there.'
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