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Another spatial appropriation that has become a Space of Representation is the Italian Feast. In this photograph we see the Children’s Giglio which is part of the combined feasts of Saint Paulinus and Our Lady of Mount Carmel which takes place in Greenpoint, Brooklyn during the month of June. The sacred legend claims that at the start of the 5th century, Vandals attacked the seaside town of Nola and kidnapped many people to sell as slaves. The Bishop of Nola, Paulinus, offered himself in place of a widow’s only son. After being carried off to Africa he prophesized the death of the Vandal king. When the king heard this, he dreamed of Paulinus and, terrified, he freed the townspeople and sent them home by ship. They were greeted at dockside with candles or cilii which in a later word shift became gigli or lilies. In the pageants of the 17th and 18th century lavishly decorated baroque towers came to represent the lilies. In Greenpoint, the large adult giglio, and the children’s smaller version is lifted and "danced" in the crowded streets. Today the Italian population of the area is quite small, and some of the lifters, as well as many visitors, use the feast as a reason return to the "old" neighborhood. The current Feast combines with that of Our Lady of Mount Carmel (See Primeggia and Varacalli 1996). |
