Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Guatemala is the largest celebrated holiday here in this country. Throughout the week celebrations take place in the form of processions, alfombras (decorative carpets), gatherings, dramas, and church services. As the week goes on certain towns shut down, roads close (due to processions and alfombras), business close all leading up to Good Friday and Saturday, the day before Easter. Guatemala is a mainly Catholic country and so their largest day of recognition is Friday - the Death of Jesus. All throughout the night on Thursday into Friday morning the roads in the city of Antigua are shut down so that people can create and design these amazing alfombras. Then in the wee hours of the morning processions come through carrying floats depicting the virgin Mary, the crucifixion of Jesus, and other traditional images. They walk over these alfombras (which is kind of sad after seeing all the work put into them) and usually end up at a Catholic church or central park area where many people can gather. We spent all night last night (Thu) from 10 p.m. - 5:30a.m. walking around Antigua seeing the beautiful alfombras and eating some traditional Guatemala 'street' food. Vendors come and set up booths simliar to a fair or festival so that people can buy food while they walk around.
The first section below are some photos from alfombras and the procession in San Andres where Hogar de Ezperanza is located (about a mile or so from our house). This happened on Tuesday morning.
As you can see the alfombras have a wide variety and are made from a range of materials and objects. The majority use colored sawdust (depending on the style depends how fine/how small the pieces of sawdust are), but many also use vegetables, fruits, flowers and flower pedals, grasses, and small wooden objects,
The rest of the pictures show alfombras in Antigua as well as people creating and making them using stencils and shaking the sawdust using strainers, spoons, and their hands.
Another interesting tradition here is that once the big processions are over on Friday and Saturday, the majority of people take a vacation (many go to the beach) on Easter Sunday. It seems strange because we as Evangelical Christians celebrate the resurrection on Sunday which is the monumental day of our faith. In some ways it is hard to think about the meaning of Easter here because of all the other activities and processions that take place. The whole week is a time that tests your patience because of roads that are closed, change of schedule, traffic, parking issues, and just overall the amount of people increases. It's a different way of celebrating Easter then I have every experienced, but through it all Sunday is coming. The true meaning of Life, the Giver of Life, and Love Himself rose again to give us life. I hope we all take time this weekend to think about that. We hope you have a wonderful Easter.
Another quick note if anybody is interested in purchasing coffee, chocolate-covered coffee beans, or any other Guatemalan product you can think of let us know and we will gladly bring it with us on our visit to PA in June.
From 80 degree Guatemala,
Andi and Shauna
