Coronavirus restrictions have begun to bleed into the warmer days, forcing summer holiday festivities and traditional family gatherings to be canceled—this, of course, includes our beloved Feast Day celebrations. The oldest feast of its kind, the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Feast — set to take place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn — will not be held this year.

Normally in July, this gathering of Italian Americans from all over the Northeast and beyond features an amazing feat: the lifting of the Giglio, where 130 men hoist up a magnificent, 80-foot statue. In a Facebook post, the pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, Rev. Monsignor Jamie J. Gigantiello, wrote that the cancellation is “a financial burden we cannot stand to bear.”