Monday, April 9, 2012

Easter in Costa Rica

Remember the days when Spring Break was the week always leading up to Easter?  Now it varies, but in Costa Rica, Spring Break is always the week of Easter.  It is known as Semana Santa, or Holy Week.  All of the kids are out of school and many people have the week off.  If not the entire week, then at least Wednesday through Sunday.

On Thursday, practically everything but the grocery stores, McDonald’s, and Walmart shut down.  My high school Spanish teacher – who is from here – told me that “When I was little, people would not dare drive a car. People thought you were a heretic and threw stones at your cars. All bars are sealed (people drink liquor in their homes) and take off to the beaches.”  Interesting!

On Friday morning, Kelsey and I heard some drums.  We went outside to take a look and saw that there was a procession at the local Catholic church (I live just 100 meters away).  We went to check it out and it was a reenactment of Jesus and the two criminals being beaten and escorted to Golgotha.  The soldiers cast lots for Jesus’ clothes and then they placed Him on a cross.  Here is a video of what transpired:

 
This procession was just one of several.  I heard that on Friday night at the church, they burned a doll that represented Judas.  We weren't able to make it to that one or the other two or three ceremonies to mark the Easter season.  Even so, it was emotional walking with everyone on Friday morning and witnessing what I recorded above because it made me feel like I was a part of the crowd that crucified Jesus.  It made it real to me.

Saturday, we went to a friend’s house for pizza.  According to Costa Ricans, our friends live “really far away” (Considering the small size of this country, “really far” means more than 20 minutes!), but there wasn’t any traffic so we got there in about 35 minutes.  After lunch, we watched our home church’s Easter service since they offered several services this weekend and broadcast them online.

This morning was great!  Contrary to what happens in the States with churches being packed on Christmas and Easter, we actually didn’t expect a lot of people today.  We assumed that they’d still be out of town.  We were all pleasantly surprised to have a full house – about 50 kids and over 200 adults.  The Lord's Supper was observed for the first time at our church.  It was a great day to celebrate Jesus dying for our sins and rising from the dead.  He lives!

This video is of our worship time with little ones.  David's friend, Luciano, is really getting down to "Father Abraham".


On the way home, David asked Enrique what he learned at church.  Enrique told him that he learned that Jesus died for us, but on the third day He rose again and He lives!  David said that he learned the same thing.  As a mom – and his teacher – I was proud of him for remembering.

Family getting together for Easter and sharing a meal is not customary here, but I decided to prepare a traditional Easter dinner and invited Julio, Ashley, and Kelsey.  We had ham (Well, I thought that I bought a ham, but it turned out to be some other type of pork.), pineapple and cheese casserole, broccoli and rice casserole, carrots, zucchini, apple crisp and ice cream, and sweet tea!  We also dyed some eggs and had an Easter egg hunt (in the dark as the sun sets around 6p here).

All in all, it has been a great last few days.  Happy Easter!