Holy Week '99 continued a tradition started three years ago by especially hardy members of the SJA committee, the creation of the Easter alfombra. An alfombra is a carpet of sawdust, seed, or flowers designed in the streets of Guatemala during Holy Week. It take a tremendous amount of effort and patience and is ceremoniously trampled within minutes during a processional carrying the bloody Jesus on the cross. It is an attempt to share the great sacrifice Christ made on the cross.
St. Joan's effort began
as a design by Mary Beth Getten and organized by the leadership
of Rick Nelson. Mindy Ahler-Olmstead put in countless hours
dyeing sawdust in colors to match the design. Mary Beth's
husband, Tim helped organize the cutout of cardboard templates
of the design. The four leaders were joined by many committee
members and a few parishioners. Thanks to Jack, Susan, Carol,
Nancy, Vickie, Adele, Lori, Kraig, Louise, Jim, and others for
their contributions. An estimated 16 hours was spent on the
design, templates, dyeing, and construction. The actual
processional took less than 5 minutes.
The theme this year was
"Cultivating Peace and Justice", and included the use of seeds
for the first time. This was done partly to tie in with this
years theme, but a