Every year in Easton, a dozen men from the Religious Society of San Placido hoist a statue of St. Anthony onto a float festooned with flowers — altogether weighing about 1,000 pounds — and take a 3-mile trek around the city’s South Side. Every year it gets a little harder as society members age, leaving fewer men capable of parading their patron saint through neighborhoods where many of their ancestors, immigrants from Italy, made their homes.
The men also find fewer offerings of fresh lemonade and snacks along the way because many of the Italian-American families have moved away, said 70-year-old Anthony Amato, a longtime society member. Still, the society has been able to carry on the tradition and, next Sunday, will celebrate its 100th anniversary.
