Holy Week Vistas: Colorful Processional Carpets

As I’ve said before, the creation of precessional carpets from sawdust, fruit and vegetables, pine-needles, flowers, etc. is a community-forming tradition. The colourful and aromatic processional alfombras or carpets are among the most creative and colorful elements of the Holy Week in La Antigua Guatemala.

Usually, people meet up by block or near-by neighbors to make the alfombras on which the processions will pass by. Often, the making of the carpets is done at night so they are ready for next day’s procession. The colorful processional carpet elaboration process involves the whole family, close friends, the neighborhood and the entire community. It does not matter if it’s just grandma throwing some corozo (corozo palms) and dried purple flowers to elaborate a humble alfombra in front of her home or it is a team of members of the cuadra (the block), or if a son lends a hand to a dad to put the final touches on the brightly-colored sawdust carpet, the devotion and the do-good spirit are present everywhere you look.

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