Lively strains of salsa and marimba music, the rhythmic pat-pat-pat of hands forming tortillas, soft voices of Mayan women urging you to buy the bright woven huipils that turn every market into a vivid kaleidoscope — this is Guatemala’s former colonial capital of Antigua.

Once among Latin America’s most beautiful cities, an earthquake shattered Antigua in 1773. Today, its cathedral (where a tumble of broken columns still lies in a roofless nave), Baroque convents and elegant 17th-century buildings display a mix of romantic ruins and fully restored examples of colonial architecture.

But for one week each spring, the city takes on a whole new dimension, a sense of calm and quiet overlaying its usual lively buzz as residents pause to remember the holiest season in the Christian faith: Semana Santa, Holy Week. The predominantly Catholic Guatemalans devoutly decorate the paving stones of their streets with intricate designs made of bright live blossoms and colorfully dyed sawdust.

Over these ephemeral carpets, robed men bear heavy statues of Christ in penance for their year’s transgressions. The scene is both beautiful and moving, an unselfconscious statement of faith as participants remember the Via Dolorosa — the Way of Tears that Christ traveled to Calvary — and hope for a new beginning on Easter.

Alfombras, brilliant carpets of flowers that pave the way for the somber processions, are a tradition here that dates back to colonial times and, like most religious observances in Guatemala, blend Spanish Catholic and Mayan influences.

The streets are first smoothed with a bed of pine needles, the edges marked by temporary wooden frames. Intricate patterns reminiscent of Persian carpets may repeat hundreds of times in fine sawdust to form the borders, while fresh-picked blossoms and more sawdust paint bright tropical birds, flowers and Mayan motifs in the centers. Once popular throughout the Latin world, this tradition remains in only a few places today.

The processions begin at noon on Palm Sunday (March 29 in 2015), when 80 purple-robed cucuruchos raise the 7,000-pound platform and statue of Jesus Nazarano at La Merced Church, carrying it through carpeted streets until after midnight. Throughout the week you’ll find processions accompanied by slow-marching bands, horses and images from churches, often enshrouded in smoke from burning copal.

On Holy Thursday, multiple processions weave through flower-covered streets, some of the statues born by women. The most solemn starts at 6 a.m. on Good Friday (April 3 this year), and observances remembering the crucifixion begin at the cathedral at noon, followed by processions until 3 a.m.

Through the entire week, workers refresh the carpets and vigils take place at outdoor altars with decorated sidewalks in front of churches. The fragrance of blossoms mingled with incense smoke wafts through the streets. Night processions are even more atmospheric, lighted by torches and candles.

Easter Sunday morning, the somber tone shifts to joyous celebrations as crowds in Sunday-best clothes replace the robed penitents, and parades of floats with the resurrected Christ are heralded by Antigua’s usual lively music.