Marian Days 2022 at Carthage, Mo. tens of thousand expected

CARTHAGE, Mo. — Due to COVID it’s been two years since the Marian Days Festival has been held in Carthage. The last count estimated 120,0000 attended the 4-day festival. This year crowds could be larger.

Carthage Police Dept state, “we’re expecting a big crowd for this year.”

  • ROAD CLOSURES
  • Grand from Highland south to Fairview
  • Fairview and Wynwood
  • Glenstone
  • Highland and Clinton

As of now the roads around the Congregation of the Mother of the Redeemer have been blocked. They will remain closed until Sunday morning, August 7th.

There will be large amounts of foot traffic near the grounds. Please be cautious in the area. We’re excited for Marian Days to be back and are planning on a safe event.” — Carthage Police Dept

The event is August 4 – 7 however thousands will arrive continually until the official start on Thursday.  It is so large they bring in portable cell phone towers around the area.

Marian Days is a festival and a pilgrimage for Vietnamese American Roman Catholics celebrated since 1978 on a 28-acre campus of the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix in Carthage, Missouri. The event is organized by Vietnamese Catholic Americans with a Vietnamese theme in mind.

It is open to the public. Many locals visit shops and restaurants during the week that are set up on the east side of the campus.

HISTORY OF MARIAN DAYS AND CRM

“On April 30, 1975, 185 clergy – about half of the Congregation – left Vietnam as boat people just before the Fall of Saigon. They arrived in the United States and were placed in refugee camps.”

They came to Carthage because of Cardinal Bernard Law, who is most remembered today for the cover up of the sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Boston. Before Boston, however, he was bishop of the Diocese of Springfield–Cape Girardeau.

Cardinal Law invited them to rent a vacant seminary, Our Lady of the Ozarks College. Between June 30 and September 3, 1975, nine priests, 154 brothers arrived in Carthage.

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