Easter Week in Costa Rica can be one of the richest cultural experiences to enjoy if you are on vacation at this time of year. This is “Semana Santa”:
Costa Rica is a country packed with strong traditions and a vibrant culture, and they both can be fully experienced during Easter (Semana Santa = Holy Week)
There are dozens of street processions wherever you go. There will be celebrations in every town where there is a church.
Participating in the religious and cultural experiences or simply enjoying the last weeks of the sunny season is certainly a very good time of year in Costa Rica.
Whether participating in the religious and cultural experiences or simply enjoying the sunny season’s last weeks, this is certainly a very good time of year in Costa Rica.
Street Catholic Processions
Processions are a way to remind the people of what happened on Easter in the last days of Jesus. It originally comes from Spain, and they happen all over Latin America. (Video above)
Each town creates masses and processions, and they take place on Palm Sunday, Holy Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Sunday.
As you can see in the video above, they include actors that engage in the reenactment of the latest days of Christ reaching up to the resurrection.
When the procession starts walking, the assistants join the parade in many cases singing and praying
Local Celebrations
Many Costa Ricans retire to their hometowns during Holy Week to spend the season with friends and family.
These celebrations include traditional attire ensembles that represent the procession; residents and visitants also enjoy the arrangement of local foods.
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Traditional Foods
Throughout Sacred Week, the tradition is to consume seafood because of the Catholic habit of not eating beef during Lent Fridays.
With two coasts, Costa Rica serves a collection of exquisite dishes like fried fish, rice with calamari or shrimp, fish or lobster ceviche, and well! Fish Soup! As well as seasonal vegetables and fruits like empanadas de chiverre (a big fruit/vegetable in the family of squash) and chiverre honey.
The tradition of making homemade jam like honey from a fruit or vegetable is very popular during Easter Week in Costa Rica.They are all made with “tapa de dulce” (Sugar cane juice hardened after boiling for hours)
For the fruit, honey, water, and tapa de dulce are cooked; the select fruit is added to the mix with cinnamon and vanilla. Cod soup is also very common at this time of the year. It is usually prepared using tender squash, potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots. This soup is fast and simple to cook and can be consumed as an aperitif or main dish.
Exploring the Sea and Sky
Everything in Easter Week in Costa Rica, except tourist destinations, is closed on Thursday and Friday during Holy Week, and many Costa Rican families enjoy some of the 1,000 miles of coastline.
With an excellent array of magnificent beaches extending from a coconut tree-lined paradise to volcanic black sand shores surrounded by infinite rainforests.
For those seeking adventure inland, Costa Rica is at the core of one of the most active volcanic regions on the planet.
Costa Rica has up to 500 volcano formations among volcanoes, old cones, and mountains that were formed as volcanoes but have been extinct for millions of years already.
References:
2017. Procesiones josefinas serán protagonizadas por feligreses . no-date. Nacioncom. [Online]. [6 April 2017]. Available from: http://www.nacion.com/ocio/artes/Procesiones-josefinas-protagonizadas-feligreses_0_1408859136.html
Sáenz-Carbonell, O. (2017). Camino Travel. [online] www.caminotravel.com. Available at: https://www.caminotravel.com/easter-week-costa-rica/ [Accessed 6 Apr. 2017].