Flower and sawdust carpets of Holy Week in Antigua

What it is

Antigua Guatemala, the old colonial capital, keeps one of the most elaborate Holy Weeks in the Americas. Before each procession, families and neighbours work through the night on the cobbles outside their houses to make an alfombra, a carpet. Some are of dyed sawdust pressed through stencils. Others are made of pine needles, flowers, fruit and vegetables, with the pale, scented flower sprays of the corozo palm, bougainvillea petals, chrysanthemums and roses. The carpet is an offering. A few hours later the procession, with its heavy float carried on the shoulders of dozens of bearers, walks straight over it, and the street is swept.

Before you go

• Good Friday has the most carpets. Walk the procession route in the hours before dawn to see them being made.
• Never step on a carpet, even at the edge. Only the procession crosses it.
• Rooms in Antigua for Holy Week are booked up many months ahead.

The flowers you will see

ChrysanthemumAutumn-blooming flower with thousands of varieties, cherished in East Asia and beyondRoseWoody perennial plants with showy, often fragrant flowers in many colours

Also part of it, and being written: Bougainvillea, Attalea cohune.