Semana Santa, or Holy Week, is the biggest week of the year here in Costa Rica. Everything is closed for the week and most families head to the beach. The weather is beautiful then and it's a big time for families to just be together and eat traditional food. The Catholic Church is the biggest influence here and this is their week of celebration, fireworks, parties and parades. It was interesting to see the focus on the death of Christ, not his resurrection. We saw several different parades and all of them looked very similiar with statues of Jesus, Mary, and whoever that city's saint is (in Coronado, the Catholic Church is named after Saint Isidro so there was a statue of him in this parade). There is one Catholic Church located in every city and they all face the same direction (west) with a community park in front.
All stores are closed on Good Friday only during Holy Week, not Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday service is carried out just like every other Sunday. There are absolutely no Easter bunnies, eggs or candy given out. Random fact...did you know that marriages are only legal if done by a Catholic priest?
It would be very difficult for a Costa Rican to leave their family's/country's culture and join the evangelical church. My teacher at school said that when she was a child, most girls in her class were not allowed to play with her because she was not a Catholic. I heard that evangelicals do not even want to be seen at the parades or parties for fear that someone they know would see them and wonder why they were at a Catholic event. It's such a difficult struggle. I was very happy that our church we've been going to really did make a big deal out of the resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.
Prayer, the gospel, and missionaries are still desperately needed here. Not religion. Our hope lies in the fact that Jesus is God and he defeated death once and for all on the cross to be raised from the dead 3 days later. To only focus on his death is missing the whole point of Christianity. I'm so excited about the work ahead of us here in Costa Rica. Our language school time is nearing an end and we are ready to plunge into this work full-time. Gracias a Dios por todo en mi vida!
Dad and me in front of the Catholic Church in Coronado
All stores are closed on Good Friday only during Holy Week, not Easter Sunday. Easter Sunday service is carried out just like every other Sunday. There are absolutely no Easter bunnies, eggs or candy given out. Random fact...did you know that marriages are only legal if done by a Catholic priest?
It would be very difficult for a Costa Rican to leave their family's/country's culture and join the evangelical church. My teacher at school said that when she was a child, most girls in her class were not allowed to play with her because she was not a Catholic. I heard that evangelicals do not even want to be seen at the parades or parties for fear that someone they know would see them and wonder why they were at a Catholic event. It's such a difficult struggle. I was very happy that our church we've been going to really did make a big deal out of the resurrection on Easter Sunday morning.
Prayer, the gospel, and missionaries are still desperately needed here. Not religion. Our hope lies in the fact that Jesus is God and he defeated death once and for all on the cross to be raised from the dead 3 days later. To only focus on his death is missing the whole point of Christianity. I'm so excited about the work ahead of us here in Costa Rica. Our language school time is nearing an end and we are ready to plunge into this work full-time. Gracias a Dios por todo en mi vida!
Dad and me in front of the Catholic Church in Coronado
Inside this beautiful church
Watching break dancers in the park
Selling goodies for the kids
Here comes the parade
Altar boys with their smoke lanterns
dancers
Statue of Jesus
Carrying the cross
Statue of Mary with San Isidro behind her
Mary crying
Jesus on the cross in front of the church with Mary beside him
More statue carrying
Death march being played by a band in front of the church
Easter Sunday family picture in our front yard
We celebrated Easter lunch with some friends and my parents. It was such a fun afternoon celebrating together with the Graham's and the Marten's.
Claudia is Italian/Canadian, so it was a sort of Italian Easter celebration
With Italian Easter bread? They died Easter eggs and put them in the center of bread and then poured icing on the top and baked it. Interesting.
When we got home we saw these guys on the power line next to our balcony. I'm not sure I'll ever get used to just seeing parrots hanging out by my window!
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