The Feast of Giglio was born in 1903 when immigrants from Nola, a town not far from Naples in Italy, arrived in Brooklyn, a neighbourhood of New York. Eager to celebrate their saint Paolino di Nola in a foreign land, they decided to pay him homage by dancing a Giglio and a boat in his honour in July. In the last 55 years a committee, together with the community of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, organizes the feast of Giglio. This year the Capo of the Giglio is a third-generation Italian American whose name is John Christopher.

The singer is a local boy, Anthony Allocca, and the band is the Danny Vacchiano feast band (The giglio band). Every 8/10 years a new Giglio is made in a small shop near the church, thanks to the support of a collaborative committee, the Society of St. Paolino, led by Mark Masciolo. This Giglio is 21.5 feet high and it is located at Havemeyer Street at the intersection of North 8th street. The Giglio is a tower and it is a heavy structure weighing about 4 tons and 65 feet high.