Semana Santa

Semana Santa (Holy Week) is the biggest holiday in all of Latin America and Guatemala in particular is famous for making Alfombras (rugs) of beautiful, vibrant colors over which walk the Easter floats which are carried on people's shoulders. The Alfombras are made of painted or dyed sawdust pieced together using stensils. All week in almost all towns around the country in the middle of the roads you will find these lavish rugs.


Here is the main "Jesus Float" about to walk over an Alfombra depicting Jesus' face.


the men carrying the Jesus float on their shoulders, with the soldiers who arrested Jesus walking alongside

Here are the women dressed in mourning clothes (black and white) carrying Mary's float, there were scores of women dressed in mourning clothes walking in front of the float and the whole parade crowd was very silent, it was a very somber procession very different from a festive 4th of July parade.

Here are the kiddos we took with us to watch the parades in Antigua. They had never been to Antigua and were a bit shell shocked most of the time, with all the crowds and beautiful buildings and processiones (parades).


Antigua, Guatemala in particular is most famous for the best Processiones and the best Alfombras. Hotel rooms in Antigua for Semana Santa are booked over a year in advance.