Semana Santa: Processions and Alfombras

Holy Week, or Semana Santa, is a huge deal here in Guatemala, especially in Antigua. People flock from all over the world to take in all the festivities, and there is certainly no shortage of processions, displays, etc. It is QUITE the ordeal. Us volunteers were busy working as tías again in the sections for Semana Santa so unfortunately we didn't really have time to see the celebrations during actual Semana Santa. Luckily, smaller events were still happening on the Sundays of Lent leading up to Easter. So, taking advantage of my non-tía freedom while I still had it, I set out for Antigua one Lenten Sunday morning to be a tourist and see what all the hype was about.

I almost immediately regretted my decision to leave the house hahaha. Apparently, everyone else wanted to see this stuff too- the streets were pretty dang packed. I can only imagine the level the mayhem must get to when it's actually Semana Santa! Following the throngs of tourists, I tracked down the procession that was passing through Antigua. While the wall of people prevented me from getting too close, it was still neat to see the giant float being ferried along by scores of men hooded in rich, purple silk robes, chanting and swaying. Pretty different than what we do in the States, that's for sure!

people. and also a float.

MAXIMUM zoom

I couldn't handle the crowds for too long, so I wandered away fairly quickly. Fortunately, celebrations during Lent and Semana Santa take place all over Guatemala, even in my own little town of Parramos. I was really pleased a few weeks later when Parramos held a procession during Holy Week that we got to take the kids to. I got a lot closer to the "action" than I did in Antigua. Check out the floats and purple robes, really cool!

CULTURE.

Stations of the Cross

My favorite part about the Parramos procession was the famous alfombras (literally, "carpets") the residents of Parramos created. The alfombras are beautiful works of art on the street made out of plants, saw dust, fruit, flowers, and more! There are more elaborate alfombras in Antigua, but I still was really impressed by the ones in Parramos.

crafting the alfombra

CAUTION: Alfombra- making in process!

oooo so pretty!

The craziest thing about the alfombras is that the procession and crowd falling it just walk right over them and DESTROY them as they go!

Wait, no, stop, what are you doing?! That's BEAUTIFUL!

aaaand there it goes... *sigh*

Guatemala and Antigua in particular are AMAZING for Easter. Semana Santa and the weeks leading up to it during Lent are just bursting with culture. If you ever get the chance to come down here during that time of year, don't pass it up. It will be crazy but you won't regret it. I'm grateful that I had the opportunity to witness even a small part of it.