Ensayo expositorio

Three Important Catholic Costa Rican Traditions
Costa Rica is indeed a colorful country. The multicultural mixture include customs from
countries like Spain, Italy, Jamaica, parts of Africa andAsia, all combined with lovely elements
from the indigenous heritage of the area. Most of all Costa Rica is a Catholic country, for this,
most of the traditions come from the religion itself andrevolve around the other most
important thing in Costa Rica: Family. It is important to be familiar with our traditions
to be able to understand why and how festivities such as “Virgen de LosAngeles”, Holy Week
and Christmas feast are celebrated.
First of all, on August 2nd, Costa Ricans honor “La Virgen de Los Angeles” who is the

patron saint. She appeared to a young girl from Cartagomany times as a small stone statue

and asked her to build a church in her honor in the spot she kept finding the statue. The

people did so and many miracles started to happen. So every yearpeople from the most

remote places walk from their homes all the way to the church to pay respects or make

promises in exchange of miracles, no matter how far they live. This is one of the mostimportant Catholic celebrations in our country.

In addition, and also very important, on the last week of March or the first week of
April, we celebrate Holy Week. This is a mixture of churchcelebrations and family party. There
are special services and activities in the churches throughout the whole week. Starting with
the “Domingo de Ramos” where the priest gives every one a blessedpalm leave as a token
from the day Jesus walked into Jerusalem and people greeted him with palm leaves. Ending
the following Sunday with the celebration of resuscitation of Jesus; 3 days after hewas
crucified. Also, people prepare special food. They mainly avoid meat, as a way of showing
respect to what Jesus Christ suffered before he was crucified. Although some people escape to
the...