Sawdust Carpets of Copan Ruinas

We spent the week of Semana Santa in Copan Ruinas, in the western mountains of Honduras.  Semana Santa culminates with Viernes Santo, or Good Friday.  We walked with our teachers two blocks from the school to the central plaza where the sawdust carpets had been dutifully made the night before.  These alfombras, or carpets are made from dyed sawdust that is used to make elaborate religious pictures.  The street is measured and marked with twine the evening before.  Then a layer of wood shavings is laid out and leveled.  People work on the temporary carpets all night long to have them ready for Good Friday.

Here in the first panel of the alfombra, there is a mix of religious symbolism 

and Mayan numbers and symbols, too.

                                Watermelon vase for the flowers.      

This is how the kids viewed the carpets... they took these pictures.

People also created altars in front of their homes...

When we returned to our house later that day, the kids were inspired to create their own little altar in front of the house with things they could find around the street and driveway.

In the afternoon, a procession walks over the carpets and they are swept up the next day.