Semana Santa, Holy Week

A couple of years ago I was fortunate enough to visit the wonderful city of Antigua in Guatemala during Holy Week.   I've been thinking about that trip as that time of year approches once again.   It was one of the most beautiful and special traditions I've seen.   This first picture is of one of the churches in downtown Antigua.  Spectacular!

Here is a detail:

The local people create "carpets" for the parade that winds it way thru town on foot on their slow way to the Cathedral, carrying very heavy depictions or stories of the death of Christ.  The carpets are made from all kinds of imaginable plants, from seed pods, to pine needles to colored sawdust in fanciful patterns.  Each represents hours and hours of work.  Some small, some as long as the street along the parade route, and they are instantly destroyed as the parade passes.  Here are  few pics:

And another one!  I took sooo many pictures!

This next picture is one of the very heavy "stories" (I'm not sure of their official name)  carried throughout the town for hours, carefully blessing each neighborhood.

As you can see it requires 40 to 50 people (at a guess) to carry this one.

A couple of the young men in the parade.  Isn't it a great picture?



No quilts have resulted from this trip as of yet, but I did get lots of great traditional handwoven fabric, lots of patterns and colors to choose from or simply to use as inspiration.

Wishing I could be there again this year.  Gracias por la visita.

More later!

nicole