Williamsburg Brooklyn Giglio July 2008

I had always wanted to see the Giglio in action. This is a custom transposed from southern Italy to Williamsburg, Brooklyn. 120 men dance with the Giglio on their backs with a live band on top too. The comands are given in an archaic language which I suspect is Greek because that was the language of Southern Italy until a few centuries ago. Little known to most, the custom of the Giglio long precedes Christianity and was originally a form of worship of the god Dionysius. The Giglio represented masculinity and the Boat, feminity. At some point both platforms meet and bang into each other in a sexually suggestive manner. This illustrates the neat way the Catholic Church has always had of transforming pagan gods into saints. I could not find any timetable on the web. I got to Williamsburg at 11:30 AM and was told that the show would not start until 1:00 PM. I was sweating in the broiling heat without shade and when nothing happened by 1:30 I decamped. Maybe I will come back next weekend

Williamsburg Brooklyn Giglio July 2008