Holy Martyrs Parish in Tarentum marks the Feast of Corpus Christi by creating sawdust carpets in their parking lot each year.
It would not be fair of me to regurgitate the information that I just took off of another website about these sawdust carpets. So, if you want to know why and how the parish does this, you should Google it. I just did.
I live across the Allegheny River from Tarentum. However, I found out about these sawdust carpets less than a week ago, when my sister-in-law shared a Facebook post about this.
Here is what I personally noted about the tradition:
This past Thursday (May 31) was the Feast of Corus Christi. So, on today – Sunday – the parishoners of Holy Martyrs labored over their sawdust carpets. They worked all morning and afternoon on these in order to hold their vesper service in late afternoon.
I took my sister-in-law and her two small boys to Holy Martyrs at around 2 this afternoon. We chose this time because this was after the last Sunday mass.
We parked on the hill above the church since the parish makes its carpets IN their parking lot.
Then, we walked around the parking lot and looked at all of the finished and work-in-progress beauties.
From what I understand about the tradition, the church held its vesper service in late afternoon. Then, they brushed over all of their sawdust masterpieces!
What traditions does your church celebrate?
