The Catholic feast day of Corpus Domini, dedicated to the transubstantiation of the sacred host, is celebrated in Camaiore with a particular fair. The roads of the cities are covered with carpets made of dyed sawdust. On Sunday morning a solemn procession passes over them. The carpets are made during the night by the various “carpet making” groups of the village who compete against each other. However, the preparation of the material needed takes much longer. Poplar or fir wood sawdust is coloured using analine dye and is blended with glass fragments (called “brillantini”, i.e. little diamonds) to produce a material that is of poorer quality than flower petals which are used according to tradition in other places, but guarantees a wide range of extremely bright and shiny colours. Each group is allocated a space of 50m X 3m along the road where they make geometric decorations and figures of a religious or social nature. The sketches and photographs of the carpets , which are destroyed when the 9a.m. procession passes by, are conserved in the Museum of Sacred Art in Camaiore.
Gallery:
Details:
Luca Santini, Corpus Domini, in “I tappeti di segatura”, Assessorato alla Cultura del Comune di Camaiore.
by car: from Lucca A11/12 motorway exit Viareggio-Camaiore, then follow the signs to Camaiore
public transport: bus lines from Lucca.
Luca Santini
Town Council Culture Department
0584 986322
cultura.camaiore@tiscalinet.it
Ufficio stampa Eredi al Trono, in nome e per conto del Comune di Camaiore
Tel. 0584 985138 fax 0584 985139
Comune di Camaiore – Assessorato alla Cultura
The practice of celebrating the feast of Corpus Domini, the Eucharist, is due to the initiative of blessed Giuliana di Retinnes (Liegi), who was born in 1193. The Corpus Domini cult spread over Europe at the same time as the dogmatic defining of transubstantiation . This is a Catholic doctrine which affirms that at the moment of consecration, the host truly becomes the body and blood of Christ. Strong devotion to the “Blessed Sacrament” was experienced after the telling of “the Miracle of Bolsena” in 1264 when an unbelieving Bohemian priest, while saying mass, broke the host and blood poured from it. This feast was consolidated in the Catholic areas in Europe during the counter reformation period , in opposition to Protestant belief which rejected transubstantiation. In Camaiore, blessed sacrament processions date back to the 15th century. According to oral tradition, the introduction of carpets made out of sawdust goes back to the first half of the 1800’s when the Borbone family reigned in Lucca. The idea of making carpets out of sawdust was brought to Camaiore thanks to the Spanish servant of the Royal Family, who often stayed in the village.