Taiwanese bathtub Mary

Arts & Sciences Religion & Spirituality
1

I heard about this reading a book, and it seems this is common in Catholic parts of the US, but I’ve never seen any myself (mainly because Texas is very Baptist). It seems it consists of a bathtub stuck into the ground vertically halfway up, and then a Mary statue is placed in it.

I’ve not seen many bathtubs in Taiwan but a lot of gongyu had those short bathtubs that are often green (my grandparent’s house had this bathtub that consisted of brickwork made into a bathtub shape, lined with tiles). It seems bathtubs went out of style in Taiwan for some odd reason…

But I thought it would be funny if someone erected a bathtub Mary out of those discarded half length bathtubs usually ripped out of houses in Taiwan…

2

Well, during my 12 years of Catholic schooling in Texas never heard about this. Sounds like a poor man’s method to protect the statue from the elements.

3

I think I remember seeing a few of those in the Philippines.

4

It’s very poor man’s way… it was kinda intended as Catholic redneck’s way of protecting the statue from the elements.

5

Like I said, the Philippines.

6

Old school Italian Americans did the grotto frequently, you can still see them often enough, but not sure about the bathtub method.