The Giglio Festival for 2015 had amazing weather this past Sunday and it was truly a great day for the Italian community to return to Pleasant Avenue to celebrate the century old tradition. As we have mentioned in the past, East Harlem was originally called Italian Harlem up until 1960 because over 100,000 immigrants from the southern European country called this side of uptown home before it became El Barrio decades later. An 80-foot-tall Giglio statue that had been constructed all week was lifted by dozens of men at the base while a band played above on the main platform. This tradition started back in 1908 and continued up until 1971 and was the largest Italian street festival in the nation. Back in 2000, a local group worked with the Church of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel on 116th Street to bring back the tradition and the festival in now 15 years strong in this new century. Check out our past post for vintage photo taken of the Giglio Festival:
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