Guatemalans commemorate Holy Week with colorful street carpets

Francisco Orellana guided a group of friends on in Antigua, Guatemala, in creating a huge, ornate design on the street in front of his house, to honor Jesus during Holy Week. 

With his black baseball cap, pierced ear and a sliver of a beard, 26-year-old Orellana is not the typical image of a person you’d expect to find actively participating in Catholic Holy Week commemorations.

But making an alfombra, or a carpet of sorts, for the church procession to pass over, is something Orellana has done his whole life. 

“I learned to do this from my great-grandparents and my grandparents,” he said. “They get you involved from a young age. And then when they get too old, your parents continue the tradition, and then you.”

Orellana crouched down as he and his friends pulled colored wood chippings out of bags and layered them onto the cobblestone streets.

They’re making a vibrant design of purple, orange, yellow and green shapes that looks like it could be in a modern art museum.

Instead, it’s going to get trampled over.

“We started about an hour ago,” Orellana said. “This design is a little more basic, because we’re making another one in the afternoon.”

Neighbors up the street were also making a carpet out of pine needles and flowers.

Another was intricately designed with colored sawdust. Orellana said that some of them can even take an entire day to make.

“Each design and material is unique. But the idea is to make an offering to Jesus for everything he’s given us.”

“Each carpet is different,” he said. “Each design and material is unique. But the idea is to make an offering to Jesus for everything he’s given us.”

Holy Week procession

On Thursday, hundreds of people dressed in purple robes carried a huge wooden float depicting Jesus shouldering a cross. They wound through the city streets for hours, walking across the freshly made carpets.

The procession essentially destroys the carpets as it passes over them. A cleaning crew follows closely behind the procession, quickly shoveling and sweeping away the remnants with the help of a bulldozer. Some people even collect the tiny remaining pieces to keep as souvenirs.

“It’s kind of sad that it goes by so fast for all the time that you invest in it,” he said. “But there’s also a deep satisfaction. We’re celebrating one more year. We made it.”

That is how many in the streets feel. Hundreds of thousands of people gather for the celebrations. It is the first Holy Week since the pandemic began without COVID-19 restrictions. And this year, Orellana said, people are more passionate than ever.

“It’s hard to describe,” he said. “But it’s really beautiful.”

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