Located at the central Mexico, Huamantla has been known for its
flower and sawdust carpet during the feast of the Assumption of
Mary. At this festival, people use colorful sand, flowers, fruits,
dyed sawdust, to create carpets as offerings for its patron saint,
La Virgen de la Caridad.
The exhibition is centered on the art of Huamantla’s
carpet-making, and it brings the audience entering an ancient town
to experience the splendid carpets and its festive atmosphere.
Four Mexican artists utilized the museum's space to demonstrate
the carpet-artmaking. This is the first time this unique art creation
ever being shown in Taiwan.
Huamantla is located at the state of Tlaxcala, 160 km away from
Mexico City. Being founded in 1543, the city is one of the earliest
Spanish colonies. Huamantla is called “Heroica Huamantla” because
of its legendary history. The city was selected in 2007 as one of the
Pueblos Mágicos in Mexico.
In Huamantla, the words, Alfombras and Tapetes, are used to differentiate two kinds of carpets, the flower,
icon-painting carpet and the sawdust carpet. The main material for making Tapetes is dyed sawdust,
and cardboard stencils and sieves are the tools. The pictorial design of Tapetes can be various.
The common images are flowers, the sun, the moon, the stars, and other geometric patterns.
The carpet would be paved on the streets where the procession is taking place.
Due to its very short life, the carpet is called the ephemeral art.
Huamantla’s icon-painting carpets are called “Alfombras”,
which could be described as religious icons on the ground.
The artmaking and the display of Alfombras usually take place
in a pre-built scaffold at the plaza of the Basilica of Charity.
The icons are usually decorated by flowers and fruits surround it.
Alfombras are the offerings to the Virgin of Charity and
provide aesthetic enjoyment for people attending this festival.
Huamantla’s annual feastival is called “the night no one sleeps”.
The main ceremony is held for two days, August 14th and 15th.
People would firstly decorate streets with colorful flags, flower baskets, and lanterns.
Then they would use dyed sawdust to make the carpet on the streets.
In the August 15th at about one o’clock in the morning, the statue of Virgin of Charity
departs from the Basílica de la Caridad and begins a solemn procession.
The statue and followers march back at about seven o’clock,
and the event ends after a morning Mass.
The carpet vanishes as the procession finishes.
In Catholicism, a patron is a guardian or an intercessor for a particular locality.
The Virgin of Charity is the patron saint of Huamantla who had a lot of legends.
The statue of the Virgin of Charity is 85cm height, wood-carved,
and decorated by a heart-shaped badge and golden palm on its chest.