Heaven Touches Brooklyn in July

2002

57min

Imagine 125 men carrying a five-ton, five-story, hand-sculptured tower and a 12- piece brass band - on their shoulders - dancing it through their neighborhood in tempo to joyous Italian folk songs! For 300 years in Italy, and the past century in communities throughout the greater New York area, this glorious ritual known as "The Dance of the Giglio" has been celebrated each summer with unbridled passion and devotion. This annual 65-foot-high moving monument to faith, folk-art and family honors a Roman Catholic Saint, San Paolino di Nola and his heroic act of sacrifice in the ancient Italian city of Nola in the year 409 A.D.