Sawdust Carpets Created on Nicaragua’s Streets on Easter Good Friday
On Good Friday 2017 we had the pleasure of doing a day trip to Leon with some friends to take in the creation of the Sawdust carpets that cover one of the main streets in Sutiaba on the west side of Leon. Resident artists spend all afternoon in the 36 degree Leon heat to create the sawdust carpets in preparation for the evening procession that marks the final carrying of the crosses during the Catholic Holy Week.
Creating these sawdust carpets is a common tradition around the world on Good Friday, The custom originated in Germany and was later adopted by Catholics in Central America. The procession actually walks over the carpets and then later they are all swept up and disposed of.
The carpets are made mostly of wet, colored sawdust and a few other materials that are used to decorate the creations (e.g. glitter). They artists sketch out their creation on a mat of uncolored wet sawdust, usually with a small stick, and then proceed to layer additional colors on top to build their carpet.
This video is a much compressed version of about 90 minutes of total video we took over the 2 hours it took us to walk the 5 or 6 blocks that are used to create the mats. Unfortunately we were not able to stay for the evening procession.
In some browsers to watch in Full Screen you may have to hit the YouTube button and watch it there.
#leon #sutiaba #sawdustfestival #semanasanta #easter #nicaraqua