Williamsburg gears up for 128th annual Giglio Festival
Italians in Williamsburg hold three major feasts especially close to their hearts —Easter, Christmas and the annual Giglio Festival at Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish.
The Feast of San Paolino Di Nola and Our Lady of Mount Carmel, which opens on Wednesday, July 8, celebrates both the return of a fourth-century Italian bishop from captivity and the Blessed Virgin Mary’s patronage of Mount Carmel. The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel falls on July 16. The festival runs until Sunday, July 19, with closing benediction that night.
The liberation and return to Italy of St. Paulinus (San Paolino) following captivity gave rise to great jubilation as the townspeople of Nola, carrying lilies, greeted their bishop. Thus, an Italian festival was born.
The festival, brought to America almost 128 years ago, celebrates Italian heritage and community. Some 40 years older than the San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy, the Mount Carmel/Saint Paulinus Festival is very “Brooklyn.”