Complete Coverage: City Festivals

Flash: A feast of faith in Williamsburg

June 1, 2007

A feast of faith in Williamsburg

The smells and sounds are the ones familiar to Italian street fairs: sizzling hot sausage and sweet, doughy Zeppole. There are brass bands, calliope tunes, and bells and honks as hopeful gamblers win or lose the ring toss or dart throw.

June 1, 2007

Phil Manna: A long dance with giglio

A dozen men huddle in the basement of Williamsburg's Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, hunched over the paper mache likeness of a Catholic saint with brushes and cans of gold paint, and Phil Manna is standing watch.

June 1, 2007

Timeline: Giglio's dance from Nola to New York

"Wherever the Nolani are – there is the spirit of the feast," says Father Joseph Fonti, pastor of Williamsburg's Our Lady of Mount Carmel church.

June 1, 2007

Giglio decoder: The stats & terms

Everything about the giglio is done according to Old World recipe. The tower design is steeped in rich tradition from its wide paper Mache base to the ornamental likeness of San Paolino (also called Saint Paulinus) sitting atop the structure and looking over Brooklyn from on high.