There is one festival in the European country of Spain which celebrates nature’s beauty and harmony by laying elaborate carpets made of flowers and volcanic sand on roads once in a year.In La Otorava, Tenerife, the festival is celebrated with full enthusiasm and vigor. People from all over the world to participate in carpet making and express their aesthetic sense in flowers and colored sand.
The festival is known as Corpus Christi and is a tradition now for last 163 years. Although in Canary islands the festival has been celebrated for more than three centuries but the tradition of carpet making was started in 1847 by a lady called Leonor de Castillo Monteverde. She first of all made a small carpet of three square meters, just as an expression of her creativity and as a means to please and attract the procession.
But the carpet attracted people and inspired them so deeply that it became a tradition each year to make carpets from colorful flower petals and colored volcanic sand. Since then the ritual was suspended only twice, in 1891 and 1897. Except these two years, each year has witnessed a colorful and fragrant full saga on roads, depicting various creative expression of carpet makers from across the world.
The sand for the carpets comes from foothills of Mount Teide and the local residents grow many types of colorful flowers many months in advance for the gala day. The festival of creativity and harmony with nature is so popular that people start preparing for the festival many months in advance. They draw the carpet designs on papers, decide on types of colors and flowers and for many days the design and layout of carpet remains a favorite subject of family discussion over the dining table.
On the day of Corpus Christi, carpet making becomes a family affair. Men and children of family draw the outline while women fill up the shapes with colorful petals. It makes a spectacular scene to see thousands of people serenely making carpets of flowers and sand and expressing their inner creativity on roads.
One of the most memorable carpets on the day are made in the townâs Plaza del Ayuntamiento, representing three biblical scenes. Every year, on the same place new biblical scenes are created in a large area of 912 square meters. The scenes are never repeated and all of them are made up of only volcanic sand.
30th June of year 2011 witnessed the peaceful and colorful festival, with people from across the world thronging the rods either to catch a glimpse of the carpets and click them to show to their children or to make the carpets themselves.
Via OddityCentral