A Sawdust Carpet Journey

One of the delights of traveling abroad is to unexpectantly happen upon a traditional festival. As I walked through the town of San Cristóbal Verapaz the day before Easter 2008, I was greeted with a crowd of people lining colorful streets. I squeezed into a space on the sidewalk below the church and watched in wonder as people quickly put the last touches on brightly colored elaborate religious and geometric designs. Antigua’s colorful sawdust carpets are world famous. What a treat it was to see the ancient tradition in the smaller town outside of Cobán.  

Eight years later when my husband and I moved to Guatemala, weekend trips to Antigua became our escape from the chaos of life in Guatemala City. As I spent more time in Antigua,  I knew that I wanted to see the incredible sawdust carpets of that colonial city, so I reserved a hotel room a year in advance. Because of a family issue that required my presence, I canceled the reservation and planned to attend later, but with a pandemic and a transnational move, I was not able to attend during Holy Week.  

In November 2022, three years after publishing the Magical Skies of Sumpango, I reached out to Analuisa Alvarado, who illustrated the kite festival book. With the memories of the first sawdust carpet, I began to think of a storyline that would be relevant to children yet explain the cultural tradition. One afternoon while washing dishes, the entire storyline came to me, and I ran upstairs and wrote it down. A few edits later, I sent the story to Analuisa, who shared that as a child she helped make sawdust carpets.  

In March of 2023 just before Easter, while I was in Guatemala for the printing of Fernando Llort: Painting La Palma: Pintando La Palma, I was invited to read Antigua’s Amazing Sawdust Carpets/Las increíbles alfombras de aserrín de Antigua, which had yet to be printed,  to a group of children in Antigua and work with them in making a sawdust carpet. With the story in hand and large copies of the artwork, I read the story to an enthusiastic group of youngsters who didn’t seem to mind that they didn’t have a physical book to read. After the event, we sat in the coffee shop of a friend and watched as Holy Week processions passed by. Now that the book has been published, Edna Coyoy will be reading it in Antigua and participating in making a sawdust carpet. I plan to make reservations at my favorite hotel for Easter 2025.