Semana Santa and Carpets in the Streets

A tradition in Honduras for Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is the alfombras en las calles, or the carpets in the streets.

So, we headed off Friday morning, 4-6-12, with our friends to 'El Centro' (downtown) to see the colored streets!

Here's Ellen with Chad and Nikki standing behind her.

Our first stop was to watch a procession in the streets depicting Christ's journey to the cross.  Amazingly, the streets of Tegucigalpa were all but vacant this morning.  Even so, there were police present at either end of the procession and blocking off the street - very nice.

The people that were gathered were very intent on the procession and very solemn.

They just acted out the part of stripping Jesus of his robes and beating him.

"Cristo es la Resurrección y la Vida" which is: Christ is the Resurrection and the Life!

The people use colored sawdust to created amazing designs.

Some are just incredibly colorful patterns and others are actually pictures depicting scenes from the Easter story.

Some of the pictures were being made freehand as this one was.  They first draw out the picture on the asphalt in chalk and then fill in with sawdust.  Here a woman is working on the beard of a man's face.

This is the same picture from another angle.  You can see how nicely the faces have been made!

Other pictures and patterns use large stencils made by cutting out cardboard.

Here is a huge stencil made by taping several sheets together.  The image that's being made is a picture of Moses standing before the separated waters of the Red Sea.

Occasionally I would talk with the people creating the designs and once I was actually invited to help!

These folks had already been working through the night on multiple designs and everything has to be completely finished by 11:00 am Saturday.

This video shows the design creation in process!

The alfombras bring lots of tourists and so, just like in the States, there are vendors selling snack stuff.  She's is selling a variety of chips... like fried plantain.

He's selling gum and other candies.  We bought some 'chicklets'.  All the gum is 'chicklet' but the gum we purchased was trident.  They were sold in tiny little boxes, with four little pieces, all for 15 limpera for two boxes (about 75 cents).

There are several people stationed around with water tanks to spray the sawdust to keep it in place.  Notice there's also a police officer to his left.  There were plenty of police in the streets to deter would be thieves and trouble makers.

This was a huge picture and very well done, though it doesn't quite show up as well in the photo.

Great last supper scene!

My favorite!  Jesus is The Good Shepherd!  All who trust Jesus for salvation are the sheep of His flock!

"I am the good shepherd. 

The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep."

John 10:11