Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary, in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early to mid 13th centuries. They built a chapel in the midst of their hermitages which they dedicated to the Blessed Virgin, whom they conceived of in chivalric terms as the "Lady of the place."
Popular devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel has centered on the Scapular of Our Lady of Mount Carmel also known as the Brown Scapular, a sacramental associated with promises of Mary's special aid for the salvation of the devoted wearer. Traditionally, Mary is said to have given the Scapular to an early Carmelite named Saint Simon Stock. The liturgical feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is celebrated on 16 July. (Wikipedia)
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In Italian Williamsburg, Brooklyn, the residents of the community look forward to the annual Giglio Feast held every July. Since 1903, when the Nolani immigrants first held their transplanted feast in this Brooklyn neighborhood, this festa has attempted to maintain many of the traditions from the Mezzogiorno, while adjusting to the new culture in America and accommodating the pressure to change. (http://www.olmcfeast.com/history/)
How is it built?
Keep in mind that over the years and even between Italy and America, the way a Giglio is built varies. What is explained in this section is basically the way a Giglio has been built in America for the past 100 years. Where appropriate, notations will be provided explaining the difference between a Giglio built in America and a Giglio built in Italy.
The Base
The base of the Giglio in America is a 10' by 10' square frame that carries the weight of the entire Giglio which includes the Tower, the Face and the 12 piece Band. (Note: In Italy the base is approximately 8' x 8' to accommodate carrying the Giglio down narrow streets). The base stands on four 10 foot high-6" by 6" wooden legs. The legs are attached to each other at the top and bottom by 2" x 6"s and in the middle by a 2" x 8"s creating the box like frame. Protruding forward from the front pair of legs is a 2-tier wooden bench that acts as the band stand for the musicians. Directly in the center of the 10' x 10' frame are four 20 foot high-4" x 4"s wooden uprights called 'the box'. The box is really the start of the tower that ties it into the base. It is connected on two crisscrossing 3" x 8"s that serve two purposes, the first to carry the load of the Tower and secondly to keep the frame of the base from twisting. 2" x 6" and 2" x 4" pieces of wood are used through out to provide additional support for the base. The entire base is held together with bolts and nuts and all material is mostly re-used year after year. Occasionally, various pieces of wood in the base are replaced depending on its condition from the previous year.
The Tower
The tower as mentioned above starts out as a 4-foot frame (known as 'the box') at the base. The box is created by four 4' x 4' uprights, 20 feet high and attach to the base on 2 crisscrossing 3" x 6" pieces of wood. 2" x 4"s are used both horizontally as well as diagonally to keep the four 4" x 4"s uprights from losing their spacing as we travel upwards. Once the top of the 20-foot 4" x 4"s are reached, 12-foot 2" x 3"s are used to continue the uprights skyward. This continues until the desired height is reached, which in the case of the Giglio on Long Island is 72 feet tall. (Note: In Italy the Gigli are 90 feet tall). As the tower travels upward the spacing between the 2" x 3" uprights starts to taper inward becoming narrower and narrower. This is done to accommodate the Giglio face which tapers in the higher you go.
When building the tower, you have one of two styles you can build. The first is know as the 'Box-style', where the box started at the base is carried all the way up the Giglio tower until the desired height is reached. This style is the simpler and easier to build, but the down side is that it makes the Giglio more ridged, taking away from the beauty in the bounce of the Giglio that makes it 'come to life' when danced. Depicted in the picture on the right is the building of the 'Box-style' tower, here the 2" x 3" uprights extended upward directly from the top of the four 4" x 4" uprights.
The second more picturesque and popular way to build a tower is called the 'Spine' type. Here, a fifth upright is introduced in the middle of the 2" x 4" on the back side of the Giglio from just above the end of the 4" x 4" upright box. In doing so you can connect 'ribs' to the 'spine' (the 5th upright in the back of the tower) and by bellowing out the 'spine' at the lower section, you provide 'give' in the tower that allows the tower to bounce front to back, making the face 'come to life' during the dancing. This is depicted in the picture on the left. Here you are looking at a front/side view of the tower. Towards the lower part of the picture you see the box created by the 4" x 4" uprights. On the back side you can make out the fifth upright that creates the 'Spine'. This is accomplished by moving the two back 2" x 3" uprights forward on the 4" x 4" box to somewhere in the middle of the 2" x 4" cross rib.
The Face
The face of the Giglio is the most known and recognizable component of the 3, primarily because of its beauty and splendor. The face is a hand sculptured piece of art made of papier-m�ch� figurines such as Angels, Saints and various flowers (primarily Lillies or Gigli in Italian). Although it is made to look like one long continuous piece of art, the face is actually broken up in 5 or 6 sections (the bottom section of the LI Face is pictured on the right) so that it could easily be handled, maneuvered and worked on. The face has a spire-like appearance to it, starting off larger at the bottom (approx. 4 feet in width) and tapering off at the top where the width can be as little as 18". At the top of the face usually sits the feast's or town's patron saint, San Paolino or San Antonio. Other Saints such as St Joseph or the Blessed Mother Mary are incorporated into the face at various heights.
In Italy each year a new face is designed and created from scratch for every Giglio. This is due primarily to the fact that one of the numerous prizes handed out each year is to the Best Dressed Giglio. Many months are spent designing a face, first drawing it on paper before actual sculpturing begins. Accompanying each face is a facade placed in front and sometimes on the side of the Giglio to disguise the wooden base and obscure it from view during the week leading up to Giglio Sunday (see facade pictured on left). This completely dresses up the Giglio transforming it in to a true masterpiece that has little resemblance of what it really becomes. Many Gigli faces have lights incorporate directly into it giving it the ability to illuminate during the night time dancing.
In America, the face of the Giglios usually stays the same for a number of years before undergoing any major changes. This is primarily due to monetary as well as resource constraints. What is changed from time to time is the color scheme of the Giglio. Repainting it every other year or so is usually done to signify a new Capo Paranza or commemorate a particular year.
(http://www.giglio-usa.org/what_is_a_giglio.htm)
Williamsburg, Brooklyn 2009 & 1962
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The Nolani, who settled in this section of Brooklyn in the 1880s.as the flood tide of southern Italian immigration washed upon the American shores.were eager to pay homage to their patron saint, San Paolino (the Catholic Church prefers the Latin pronunciation, Saint Paulinus). However, there were more pressing tasks to accomplish first. Along with their co-religionists, the Italian residents contributed to the building of the original Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church ( at North 8th Street and Union Avenue). The devotion of all southern Italians to the Madonna is legend, but their adoration of la Madonna Della Carmine (Our Lady of Mount Carmel) is of the highest order. As important as the Catholic Church was to these people, they still desired to pay homage to San Paolino. It is important to point out that the saints belonged, in the eyes of the peasant immigrant, more to their town or village, than to the institutional church. Thus, in the case of honoring SanPaolino, the responsibility in the United States fell not upon their parish, but to a mutual aid society which had been formed.Società M.S. San Paolino. The preferred method of meeting this obligation was to hold an annual feast in honor of the saint in question. From 1903 to 1954 , the Società M.S. San Paolino took responsibility for the operation of this annual feast in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.
The story, which is passed on through the generations on both sides of the Atlantic, is that around 410 AD, North African pirates overran the town of Nola. In the chaos, Bishop Paolino was able to flee into the countryside with some of the children. Upon his return, Paolino learned, from a sobbing widow that many of the young men, her son included, had been abducted into slavery. Moved to compassion, Paolino offered himself in exchange for the boy and was ferried off, a prisoner of the brigands. While in North Africa, word of the courage and self-sacrifice of Paolino spread and became known to a certain Turkish sultan. Taken with the tale of altruism, the sultan intervened, negotiating for the freedom of this holy man. Through the sultan 's efforts, Paolino and his paesani, were freed.
Overjoyed by his safe return, the entire town greeted him carrying lilies, symbolic of love and purity. That joyous homecoming jubilee is considered the very first observance of what would develop into an annual sacred event. Through the years, various trade guilds (farmer(ortolamo), butcher(beccaio), tailor(sarto), breadmaker(panettiere), blacksmith(fabbra), cobblers(calzolaio), deli merchants(salumiere), and wine makers(bettoliere) ) began to compete to produce the most sensational display of lilies. Over time, these displays became more flamboyant.
In the 1950s, despite the controversy it caused in the community, The Shrine Church Of Our Lady of Mount Carmel took over the reins of this important feast. Almost immediately, the church combined the Giglio Feast with the feast honoring Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Since 1954 and the merging of the two saint days into one celebration (known as the Cooperative Feast), the Giglio Feast has been celebrated in July, with all activities leading up to its culmination on July 16th, the feast day of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Since the Cooperative Feast came into existence, there has been a juxtaposing of religious, secular, traditional, and ethnic components within this celebration.
(http://www.olmcfeast.com/history/)
"The saints belonged, in the eyes of the peasant immigrant, more to their town or village, than to the institutional church."
