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And so far you've seen two Easter traditions - that Good Friday fish and the hot, hot cross buns. But if you're from the west, then you know that Benque Viejo doesn't hold back with their celebrations. Every year, they put on a dramatic reelection of the death of Jesus Christ. And one main component of the procession is the colored sawdust.
But behind the scene, a lot of work goes into those vibrant carpets that line the streets - in fact, preparation began a month ago. This morning, our Sunup on 7 hosts took you to the Benque House of Culture to learn more about the process.
Nalleli Trujillo Yacab, Benque HOC Coordinator
"For us it gives us great pride because this is one of the project of Holy Week that involves community, this is the best meaning of what community is. The project started with the initiative by Ms Josephina Salas because it's truly a labor of love, she's the founder of this community movement. So Ms Josephina created one of the first carpets in the early 2000's because of graces which she had received within her family. So her health has declined so in order for us to continue to foster this tradition, so responsibilities have now been held by the House of Culture, we are now at the helm of the Salas tapestry in Benque Viejo Del Carmen."
"In order for us to be coloring the sawdust, this is a true labor of love because we have started the coloration process from before."
Host:
"Almost a month."
Nalleli Trujillo Yacab, Benque HOC Coordinator
"Yeah. So we get our suppliers from Guatemala which would be an ounce of colored dye, so we take the uncolored sawdust, we have boiling water, we add vinegar, we add alcohol because when we add this to the uncolored sawdust which has been sifted, it goes through a sifting process because we need to take the dirt out of it, in order for us to have this beautiful colors and without all the dirt, so we use boiling water, everybody uses their gloves, their masks, their goggles to protect themselves because it's very strong, it has a very strong smell, so everybody comes with their gear and we add the boiling water to the uncolored sawdust, so it takes abut 15 minutes for us to color. Once that process is complete, we add salt. Why we add these ingredients is for us to have a rich, chromatic colors so that whenever we lay our carpets on the streets, we can add water so that the water can compress the carpets. It's just temporary art. And given the season of Good Friday, this is what bring identity and community, cohesion for us to lay out this as we pave the road for the Good Friday procession."
The reenactment begins tonight with the Last Supper. The procession itself will occur on Friday night.
