WILLIAMSBURG — The Feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel is one of the most famous summertime events in New York City, featuring the legendary lifting of the Giglio, as well as a 12-day street festival offering plenty of fun for the community.
However, at the heart of the feast is faith, offering Catholics a chance to show their devotion to Our Lady of Mount Carmel. A devotion that was on full display on July 16.
The Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel celebrated Masses throughout the day in English, Italian, Spanish, Polish, and Creole to commemorate her feast day.
In the afternoon, parishioners celebrated another tradition — processing through the streets of Williamsburg with a statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel.
“The procession that is held on the feast day is very significant because it brings our faith from the church to the streets,” said Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus Raymond Chappetto, who celebrated the 10 a.m. Mass in English.
“It’s an outward sign of the faith we have. It’s an outward sign of our inward devotion to God,” he added, “bringing her around the streets of the neighborhood and asking people to respect her, love her, as we do.”
The feast day took place four days after Giglio Sunday, a tradition dating back more than 100 years, in which volunteers, called lifters, carry a two-ton tower known as the Giglio on their shoulders as they process in front of the church.
The feast day procession with the statue of Our Lady of Mount Carmel has become such a beloved tradition that generations of families have participated in it.
“It’s a family tradition. It’s in our DNA,” said Deborah Cervo, who has walked in the procession for several years barefoot, an Italian American tradition in which participants display an act of penance and humility. “Our Lady of Mount Carmel has been in my family for generations. My grandmother was actually baptized in 1914 at this church, and we’ve done the walk ever since.”
Many participants come to the feast day with special intentions, Bishop Chappetto said. “It’s a tradition to come to Mary on the feast day, ask for blessing for the coming year, and to ask her to intercede with her son, Jesus Christ, for us in all our needs,” he said.
Cervo, who attended the morning Mass with her daughter Lynda and her baby granddaughter Carmela, said they “continue to pray for people that we love and care for, people who are sick, people who have gone before us.”
Lynda added that it’s important to pass traditions on to the next generation, “because if we don’t pass it on, who will?”
The feast day procession is also a family tradition for Steven Carrara, a lawyer who now lives in Guam. His parents were born and raised in Williamsburg, and he returns to the neighborhood every year to be a Giglio lifter and to walk in the procession.
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“It’s been part of our family for a long time. My father’s family lifted, and my mother’s family prayed,” he explained. “The church has played a big part in everyone’s life around here. We all grew up in the church.”
Msgr. Jamie Gigantiello, pastor of the Shrine Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, said the procession is a chance to evangelize and draw people into the Church.
“Whatever way we can get people in, we’ve got to meet people where they’re at, and that’s what the Church is all about,” he said. “This parish has been the center of that.”