Sweeping the Flowers

Last Thursday was Corpus Christi. That is a Catholic feast celebrating the Eucharist, or the presence of the body and blood of Christ in the bread and wine at Mass. (Don't worry, I grew up a Catholic but I still had to look that one up.) On that day there are processions in every parish, though in most parishes the processions are celebrated on the following Sunday (ours is an exception, we celebrate it this year on the twentieth of June). To honor the Eucharist, here they make sure that wherever it is taken it is surrounded only by beauty. So, the night before, dedicated parishioners decorate the route with flower petals and colored sand. Over the years it has become an art in most towns. 

Ponteareas is one of those towns in Galicia. Its floral carpets are known all over Spain and they get a lot of tourists just to look at them for a few hours, until the procession led by the priest holding the Eucharist and followed by the First Communion children destroys them, leaving only a multicolored whirl of petals and sand behind. For days before, people have been collecting available flowers, some stripping their own gardens. They collect the flowers and then spend hours pulling out the petals and organizing them by color. Since the designs have evolved over the years, there aren't enough flowers in most towns to create the intricate designs, so they also use colored sands. The night before, they carefully create the carpets, sometimes staying up almost all night. The creations can be spectacular. Now, they're also seen as a secular sight, spectacular simply for their beauty, though many still work with a religious fervor, and it's easy to see how faith can create beauty, just the same as when you look at a cathedral and the delicate stonework once done by hand.

In our town the carpets are not as arresting, but they're still pretty, and lots of people go for a Sunday afternoon walk to town just to see them. Whether religious or not, everyone likes to look and marvel at the kaleidescope of different petals. Except the street sweepers, of course.