Parishioners and some staff members from Guardian Angels Parish gathered at the Our Lady of Victory Campus in the Harwick section of Springdale Township on Monday, June 5 to prepare sawdust for making carpets to celebrate the upcoming feast of Corpus Christi on Sunday.
Some were veterans of making the carpets at the former Holy Martyrs Parish in West Tarentum. Others were novices willing to learn the process.
The sawdust was received in large bags while the powdered dyes were in containers to be mixed with water in five-gallon buckets.
The sawdust and dye were mixed in a cement mixer, starting with the lighter colors and working their way to darker ones. The dyed sawdust was then dumped into burlap sacks and placed on the lawn to be covered with plastic until Sunday morning.
The making of sawdust carpets, colorful depictions of religious themes, is a tradition that started centuries ago in the Black Forest region of Germany and has been hosted locally for 80 years.
For Christians, Corpus Christi is meant to symbolize a celebration of the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
