Easter--American Style

After a week of Catholic traditions, we added our own American traditions to Easter with the dying of eggs and subsequent easter egg hunt. Certainly this tradition doesn't have anything to do with the real meaning of Easter, but it was fun to color eggs and eat some jelly beans that my mom had sent to us.

We had heard that many of the Evangelical churches did not do much to celebrate Easter sort of as a backlash to the ceremonies and traditions of the Catholic church. So we were happy that the church we attended had a wonderful worship team celebrating the resurrection of Jesus! The real reason for Easter. Christ is Risen. He is Risen Indeed!

Semana Santa--Holy Week

As you may know, the majority of the population in Latin America is Catholic. This is true of Costa Rica and was very evident during the week leading up to Easter--Semana Santa or Holy Week. Throughout the week there were different celebrations, processions and dramatizations that told the story of Jesus and his crucifixion. We attended a drama on the steps of the local Cathedral that depicted the trial of Jesus before Herod and Pilate, his subsequent condemnation to be crucified and it ended with a processional being led by Jesus carrying his cross. It was quite powerful and only one of many such depictions of the crucifixion of Christ that occurred during Holy Week.

Thursday and Friday were national holidays, so if you weren't attending one of the many celebrations you were at the beach enjoying a long weekend. We avoided the crowds at the beach and stayed in San José.