Spanish Event

Cultural Event Reaction

Making of the Alfombras on campus was the cultural event I attended. The event took place on campus during Holy week. Alfombra is a Spanish word meaning “carpet”. The purpose for the carpet making is to create a walkway for Mary and Jesus. The making of Alfombras always takes place during Holy week before the celebration of Jesus on Easter Sunday. The event on campus was to show and demonstrate example alfombras that were being made in Guatemala at the same time.

Alfombras are made in Guatemala each year. The tradition of alfombras came from Spain, which was then adapted by the Mayans. The original making of alfombras dates all the way back to the 7th century. They Mayans adapted the idea and they originally made them with bird feathers and flowers. People till this day put in a lot of hard work and effort into making the alfmombras each year. The alfombras represent a walkway for Jesus Christ, which is highly respected. There is a big procession that takes place on Good Friday for the making of the alfombras. People in the procession only walk on the carpets because others respect the time and effort put into each rug. In Guatemala, they usually wet down the area they want to create the alfombra and create a border around the outside so the rug is even and squared. Here at school they cut white paper into a rectangle shape and taped it to the ground. They then drew the pattern they wanted to do so they could easily place the colored wood chips in the appropriate location.

The alfombras are all made different. Some are made with wood chips like our school used and some are made with flowers and pine needles. There are also some made with veggies. I was completely shocked by this when I read it. But people actually use all different kinds of fruits and veggies to make smaller alfombras. According to the article I read many of them do not last long because people snag the veggies once the precession has taken place. When using...