For Some Ticos, Good Friday is Celebrated Tackling a Giant Crocodile.

Semana Santa, or Easter week, began in Costa Rica this past weekend on Palm Sunday with masses and processions marking Jesus’s entrance into Bethlehem before his execution and resurrection. For many Costa Ricans, this is the most important religious event of the year, and people are expected to spend their time in prayer and avoiding work and physical labor. To promote this, Thursday and Friday of Holy Week are official holidays on the Costa Rican calendar, while many government employees are enjoying the entire week off of work.

As with most holidays in modern times, the traditions that come with Semana Santa are both cultural and religious. It is expected that 1.5 million residents will take advantage of their time off not to head to church, but rather to the beach. One unfortunate norm that comes with this is traffic, and lots of it! Bus companies come prepared by significantly increasing their daily departures, in part because on Friday bus routes shut down completely to allow employees time to celebrate with their families.

Preparation

Easter preparations usually begin a week in advance within the family, with traditions depending on the region you are in. In Guanacaste March and April mark mango season, and the youngest generations of the families can be found gathering mangos from around the neighborhood so that the matriarch of the family can make a mango marmalade that will show up in almost every desert during Semana Santa. Traditionally, food should be prepared in advance for the week to allow everyone plenty of time to relax.

The television stations do their part to set the tone by playing classic religious films like the 10 Commandments, Spartacus, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of Christ and even the DreamWorks animated classic, The Prince of Egypt for the kids.

While Catholics are given all of Lent to go to Confession in preparation for Easter, the numbers increase the last week before Easter as the sacrament is not available on Thursday through Easter Sunday so that the Church can focus on the important masses and processions to come. Preparation for the processions includes decorating and cleaning the religious effigies that are stored away the rest of the year, many of which will take part in up to 10 processions, with different colored clothing for each.

Religious Traditions

Like in most Catholic nations and communities, Easter week is celebrated with the family and in church. The week is a time for rest, and family gatherings often center around the television or over coffee and sweets. While there are no large meals associated with the season, Catholics will stick to fish as meat should not be consumed during the week. This is noted in the endless promotions on seafood and canned tuna for the weeks leading up to Semana Santa.

Many families will also be sure to take part in at least one of the many religious processions that take place during the week, starting with this past Sunday’s procession to the Basilica de Los Angeles in Cartago. Participants took part in the blessing of the palms, trailing behind effigies of Jesus and other saints mounted on horseback or held up on the shoulders of other participants.

As the week rolls on, the processions will depict different moments in the last week of Jesus’s life up to when he is crucified and resurrected. One of the most dramatic depictions takes place in Tres Rios, Cartago where live actors take the place of the effigies. The procession in San Joaquin de Flores de Heredia is usually covered by local television stations and includes an actor for every person that was present at the scene of Christ’s death. Most small towns will hold smaller processions where anyone is welcome to participate.

Controversial Traditions

In one particular town, Ortega de Santa Cruz in Guanacaste, men continue to participate in an age old tradition on Good Friday that involves capturing a giant crocodile with their bare hands and tying it up to put on display in the center of town. While the animal is released the following day, the tradition has been under scrutiny of animal and environmental conservationists for years. It has also grown in popularity as many visitors head to the small town to witness the act.

Another tradition that is present in several other Latin American countries is the burning of a straw and cloth effigy of Judas, the apostle that betrayed Jesus, on Holy Saturday before Easter. While most towns have some kind of representation of this, some are much more pronounced than others, especially in the Heredia province including San Rafael, San Joaquin, Mercedes Sur and Heredia centro.

The effigy is usually set up in the middle of the town soccer field in front of the church or on the beach in coastal towns. As recently as 5 years ago, the Judas night festivities have turned into riots and arrests as police try to control what becomes a giant bonfire as more and more debris is thrown in and vandalism becomes a problem. In Guanacaste, it is a tradition for men to set up a game of soccer, using the burning head of Judas as the soccer ball.

In Venezuela, where this is also a popular tradition, Judas is often made to look like a current political figure and stuffed with fireworks in an impressive display where pyrotechnics meets religion meets politics.

Superstitions

As older generations work to maintain religious traditions in their families, several superstitions have developed to reinforce the need to rest and pray during Semana Santa. Many Costa Ricans will remember their grandmother telling them that a Semana Santa spent at the beach will result in them turning into a fish. An older superstition states that driving a car during Holy Week is a sin, and some small communities apparently still throw nails out into the street to deter anyone who would consider it.

No matter how residents and visitors decide to spend this week, it’s importance to the country is clear and it is not just another holiday that may go overlooked. Holy Week manifests itself in all aspects of daily life from TV to transportation to work schedules, and even alcohol sales. It is a great time to Visit Costa Rica to take part in some of these traditions, but the visitor must make his or herself fully aware of what is to be expected before arriving to avoid any unexpected inconveniences!

Photo courtesy of La Nacion.

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Filed under: Cultural Events on April 7th, 2009