Tapetes: Building sawdust carpets for Easter procession in Brazil

  • Families, clubs and organizations are allotted sections of the route. After the Easter vigil they begin their work in the dark..
  • Groups begin filling in their designs with sawdust along the Easter procession route.
  • Creating a tapete of sawdust in the late night hours before the Easter procession.
  • Tapetes along the Easter procession route.
  • Children are often up late to help in the work of laying out the tapetes for the Easter procession.
  • Tapetes along the Easter procession route.
  • Tapetes along the Easter procession route.
  • Tapetes along the Easter procession route.
  • "Ana, I love you." Not all the messages on the route are explicitly religious.
  • Tapetes along the Easter procession route.
  • Tapetes along the Easter procession route.
  • The beginning of the tapete, or sawdust carpet, prepared the night before for the early morning Easter procession.
  • The beautiful tapetes are swept right up after the Easter procession.

In the late night and morning hours after Saturday night’s Easter Vigil, townspeople decorate the cobblestone streets with a tapete, or carpet, of colored wood shavings to mark the hilly, one kilometer route for the next morning’s procession between St. Francis of Assisi and the ornate Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar churches. Families living along the road take responsibility for each section, and pre-order large sacks of colored sawdust from the city. Student groups, adults and children are visible into the late hours tending to their sections. The quality of the designs is often remarkable.