Semana Santa or Holy Week is a big deal down here. Most people get the whole week off or at least Thursday and Friday. It is a huge travel holiday second only to Christmas. Stores and businesses begin to close at the beginning of the week and by Friday almost everything is shut down, (except Hyperpais, the superstore owned by Walmart). Because many of the people here are Catholic, most of the towns make these alfombras or "carpets" (pictured below) which will be trampled by a procession marking one of the many events in Christ's life. For each new procession a new alfombra is made. To read more about these Holy Week processions throughout the world click here.
Last year we spent Holy Week in Antigua, Guatemala where the alfombras and processions are quite famous. This year we stayed in town. On Friday, the day the Catholics commemorate the 14 stations of the cross, we went to Ciudad Arce, a small town here in El Salvador, to see the alfombras. There certainly is no international acclaim like in Antigua, but they were still quite impressive I thought.
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