THE DANCE OF THE GIGLIO

By the 1930s, the Italian population in East Harlem numbered 80,000. Once the largest Italian community in New York City, the neighborhood was bounded by East 119th Street, the East River, East 99th Street, and 3rd Avenue. So far as religion was concerned, the new residents practiced a form of Catholicism that incorporated folk traditions and religious festivals like the Feast of the Giglio (pronounced jeel-yo).

The festival has its roots in written texts and oral legends about St. Paulinus, the 5th century bishop of Nola, Italy. Stories tell of his willingness to accept imprisonment in exchange for the freedom of a widow’s only son. When he was freed, the much loved bishop was welcomed home with lilies. In fact, Giglio actually means lily, and the earliest Giglio celebrations were simply presentations of bouquets of lilies to the Catholic Church.

The Feast of the Giglio de Sant’ Antonio was inspired by the festival dedicated to St. Paulinus. It originated in the 1880s in Brusciano, a town near Nola, when Francisco Vivolo prayed to Sant’ Antonio to help cure his deathly ill child. In exchange for bringing the child back to health, Francisco vowed to honor Sant’ Antonio in the same manner that Nola honored St. Paulinus. Francisco’s prayers were answered and the dancing of the Giglio in Brusciano was born. Many people from Brusciano immigrated to East Harlem, bringing this tradition with them.

First celebrated in 1918, the Feast of St. Anthony of Padua is now sponsored under the auspices of Our Lady of Mount Carmel Shrine Church by the Giglio Society of East Harlem. This group of men has dedicated their lives to the honor of Sant’ Antonio, their beloved saint.

The authority of the Roman Catholic Church pervades the festival. Priests sprinkle holy water on the Giglio and the ‘lifters’ or Paranza. The church is symbolically borne on the shoulders of the lifters when priests ride the Giglio as guests of the feast.

The feast begins on Saturday with a street procession through the neighborhood in honor of Sant’ Angelo. This is followed in the evening by the Dancing of the Children’s Giglio. Pains are taken to make sure that each new generation takes part in the Feast. When children reach the required height — about three and a half feet — they become lifters in the Children’s Giglio, carrying scaled down versions of the adult structures. Giglio Sunday begins with a mass for the Paranza at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Shortly after the mass is over, the Dance of the Giglio begins.

For those unfamiliar with the Giglio, it is a 75-85 foot tall wooden tower decorated with papier mache replicas of saints, lilies, and other flowers. Weighing approximately 8,000 pounds, it sometimes requires over 100 lifters to get it off the ground.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, guilds and artisans vied to produce the best design. Festive music was added in the 17th century, and soon after the Giglio began to ‘dance.’ Music is so important to today’s Giglio that just above the base of the structure there is a platform large enough to carry a multi-piece band and several singers. Music inspires the lifters to such an extent that some say the Giglio would never get off the ground and dance without it. In East Harlem the most popular song is O Giglio di Cent’ otto or “The Giglio of 108th Street.”

The Giglio festival is very much about passing on traditions, riturals, and culture from one generation to the next. One Paranza said:

“My father ‘lifted’ … my grandfather and my uncles, they all did it. It’s in my blood. If they had it in the fifty states, I would go to every state.”

Another man says:

“Everyman who puts his shoulder to the giglio is performing a religious act. We have our fanfare and we have our fun, and you’ll see us laughing and joking. But we’re all doing penance. We’re doing it for deceased members of our families — a mother, a brother — to get them out of purgatory and let them rest in peace.”

A video of the 2008 Feast of the Giglio in East Harlem follows.

If you’d like, you can access our podcast of the Giglio Festival here.

Posted by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe.

Photograph by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe.

Slideshow by Lisa Reynolds Wolfe.