Some 2,000 Salvadorans created a colorful carpet made of dyed salt stretching 1,070 meters, which was used for the Holy Burial procession on Friday night, organizers reported Saturday. The “mega carpet of San Salvador” was made with 800 quintals of salt dyed in 150 shades of color and is “the largest” of its kind in Central America, Perseo Medina, coordinator of the Culture Secretariat of the capital district, said.
Featuring religious figures and other symbols of Salvadoran identity, the four-meter-wide carpet began beside Plaza Libertad and ended in front of Simón Bolívar Park, west of the capital. During Holy Week in Central America, enormous sawdust carpets are also made in Guatemala and Honduras.
Admired by hundreds of tourists, according to Medina, the work reflected the collective effort of artists, designers, and volunteers, who in some sections used plastic sheeting to protect the carpet from the rains that have been falling since Wednesday. “It is a tradition handed down” from generation to generation, said Douglas García, a 56-year-old shopkeeper.
Today it also serves so that people may “attain that peace that only Almighty God can give” in the war launched by the United States and Israel against Iran, he added.
