Easter celebrations in Antigua Guatemala date back nearly 500 years. Colonial streets fill with hours-long processions where participants carry heavy wooden platforms with statues of Christ and the Virgin Mary. Religious brotherhoods known as hermandades lead the ceremonies, while purple-robed penitents, called cucuruchos, lead the way over alfombras, intricate carpets of dyed sawdust and flowers. The air fills with copal incense, evoking prayer and purification. For the people of the city, it is a time of reflection, a shared experience of faith, and a living expression of cultural identity.