A Once in a Lifetime Easter Experience

The hype about the cultural traditions during Holy Week leading up to Easter turned out to be accurate!  We spent two nights in the popular city of Antigua, where literally millions of people travel to during the week to partake in the festivities and cultural traditions.

What are the traditions exactly?  Imagine a processional (parade-like) of thousands of men, women and children walking in lines throughout the streets, wearing all purple (and in some processionals all black), walking in these lines for sometimes up to 12 or 14 hours.  Processionals were scheduled throughout all hours of the day, one for each Catholic church in town, some starting at 4am, others not ending until 6am.  Along with the processionals themselves were 'alfombras', or carpets made of colored sawdust, flowers, fruit or pine needles.  Why do people do this?  It's a sacrifice, it's sacred, and it's inspiring.

 

There were thousands of church members walking in front of the large Jesus and Mary processional statues, but they did not walk in the center of the street but rather along the sides of the roads.  Then those (between 90 and 100 people) carrying the large float portraying Christ and other Saints walked over and through the alfombra carpets, literally destroying hours of intricate work...then followers would pick up the flowers or fruit to keep because the items were 'blessed'.

Before the processional:


After the processional:


To be an onlooker was interesting.  I was tired just walking to the streets where the processional was going to pass by, and I didn't have a huge statue resting on my shoulders.  Look at this picture in particular capturing the agony this young boy was going through while participating in the processional:

Notice the man on the corner is supporting the statue on his shoulder AND holding his baby son!

It was really cool being able to see the festivities in phases, because people building the alfombras would start during all hours of the day, too.  So we got to watch how it all happens.

Stencils were used to make intricate designs with the sawdust!

It was absolutely incredible to watch the masterpieces being created, step by step.

They watered down the alfombras to prevent wind from blowing pieces away.

WATCH this video of the processional happening right in front of us!!!

 And at the end of our time in Antigua, our host family made their own carpet, which we were able to help assist in the formation of!!!

 

 The end of our Easter week was spent with the family from Parramos, whose young girl recently passed away.  We stayed the night at their extended family's home, and I practiced making tortillas (last time it was Jenny that did it, now it was my turn!).

 It was a really nice time, there were many kids to play with.  Some of the youngest girls even sang us a song.  Listen in...

We are very grateful to have had these experiences and to be able to take in the Guatemalan culture.  And of course we were very pleased to be able to share in it with our 'extended Guatemalan family'.  We hope you can get a good glimpse at it too!