Holy Week in Honduras!

 

This professional photo shows the 
main church in Gracias, with a sawdust
carpet in front of it

In Honduras, Holy week is the biggest holiday of the year. It’s what Trish described as a “mash up” of spring break and Easter. The celebration of Christmas pales in comparison to Holy Week. People plan for it and look forward to it all year.

The mash up is not so much a religious holiday as it is a week off. Most businesses that aren't related to feeding, housing, and entertaining visitors/vacationers are closed for part or all of the week. There weather is usually hot and people celebrate by going swimming. Trish said, “It seems like, if you don’t make plans to get in the water somewhere, you don’t know how to celebrate Holy Week in Honduras. People near the ocean go to the beach. Up here in the mountains, families go to the river. All of the swimming areas connected with natural hot springs are packed. Even selling kiddie pools is a big business.” 

The time is frequently used for partying. Instances of drunk driving and drunk boating skyrocket. For the non-partiers, it can be a week to hunker down–to get to your vacation place and stay there. There are also some non-partying traditions more in keeping with Easter.

Since Gracias and the surrounding area is more isolated than other parts of the country, change does not come as quickly. A lot of people in that area have held onto more of the Holy Week traditions than in the big cities. One example of that can be found on the roads of cities and towns on Good Friday, commemorating the stations of the cross.  This includes the creation of sawdust carpets, which is a tradition that began in Europe and was brought to the Americas by the Spanish. The tradition, which dates back to the Middle Ages, is today most prevalent in Central America and Mexico. 

On Holy Thursday, sections of city streets are cleared of and cars and blocked off like a parade route. Vast quantities of sawdust which has been collected is colored using various shades of dye. The very colorful sawdust is laid out in a very thick layer–thick enough to create a smooth surface on the cobble or dirt roads. The sawdust is used to create all sorts of intricate designs. Some of the patterns are created using stencils and others are done freehand. 

Trish described the designs in Gracias as more rustic than the more splendid designs found in some larger tourist areas. She said she appreciates the more “artisanal” appearance of the handiwork in Gracias, though she hasn’t gone to admire it in person since her kids grew up and moved away. 

She said, “In the morning, it’s beautiful. The ten stations of the cross are set up around town, and the carpet creates a path leading from one to the next. At each station, there will be a storefront or a house that has been decorated with flowers and meaningful symbols to represent one of the stations. People from the Catholic church walk the sawdust path, carrying statues from their church on their shoulders. As people travel along the carpet to each station, the carpet is no longer pristine. It gradually becomes just a confused mixture of colored sawdust."

Last year, Sower4Pastors had a team on the ground during Holy Week. The team wanted to visit the sawdust carpet. Unlike some other areas, Gracias has never really promoted the carpets for tourism, and the tradition does seem to be dying out. Allen said, “In Gracias, the tradition is dwindling. In recent years, they've only put a small section of sawdust carpet in front of each station.”

Trish discussed how the sawdust carpet, in her mind, represents the beauty of people doing something that has no purpose except worshiping God. She said, “People collect the sawdust and color it, then they spend a lot of time creating the beautiful carpets. And then it will be all gone.” 

She compared it to a trip to Europe she had as a college student. Trish and her group of fellow travelers toured many cathedrals. She said, “Sometimes we would be walking through some back passageway and notice that someone had taken the time to carve a beautiful bird. Or there might be a place of beauty on the roof, in an area not visible from the street. It occurred to me at the time that someone had spent a lot of time doing something for no reason other than the fact that God is worthy of our praise and worship. That’s something people seem to be losing sight of. I’m not saying this to imply that we are better at that than other people. I think it’s something we could all do a better job of remembering.” 

Have a blessed Semana Santa (Holy Week) everyone!

 - posted by Christi