During Holy Week, the Latino Ministry led the effort to bring a Central American Holy Week tradition Ascension and the Spanish sanctuary. In Central America, these carpets would created directly on the pavement of the main streets in town, but we used plywood as a base to protect the actual carpet. The sawdust was donated by Bliffert and was colored ahead of time using fabric dye purchased with a grant from Thrivent.

Here is some of the symbolism behind these carpets.

Alfombras are a bookend to Palm Sunday. On Palm Sunday, Jesus enter Jerusalem on at path of cloaks and palms; the alfombras beautify his walk to the cross.

As Jesus walked to the cross on Good Friday, the procession walks on the alfombras, destroying the artwork on their way to the altar. As Jesus dies, the world becomes an uglier place for three days, so the beauty of the alfombras comes to an end. It is also symbolic of the tearing of the curtain in the temple.

Alfombras are traditionally made primarily with sawdust and enhanced with salt and sand. Salt is mentioned over forty times in the Bible. Sand represents both the earth and Jesus’ connection to the sea and fisherman. Sawdust is used because Jesus was the son of a carpenter. It also reminds us of the passage from Genesis that we are from dust and we will return to dust.

Gracias to everyone that joined the Latino ministries for our Holy Week activities.