Semana Santa , or Easter Holy Week, is one of the most important events for Costa Rican Catholics, and many centuries of old traditions and beliefs are involved.
To prevent curses, people traditionally stopped all kinds of activities from Holy Wednesday through Good Friday. Women cooked everything for the sacred days in advance and reheated meals, while men collected extra wood for the stoves.
Families would get together and spend days praying, attending special Masses and rituals, and taking part in the obligatory meditation on Jesus’ Passion Friday at 3 p.m., the time when Christ died. Some Catholics still maintain the traditions, though instead of spending the days praying, Ticos watch or rewatch Easter week specials such as “Jesus of Nazareth” or “The 10 Commandments.”
People also had superstitions, the most famous being “Never go swimming on Good Friday because you could turn into a fish.” Or if on that day you climbed a tree, you would run the risk of growing a tail.
Fortune hunters will love this one: They say that at midnight on Good Friday, the higuerón (giant fig) tree blossoms. There will be a cloud over it, where the devil waits for victims. Legend has it that the person who can get the flower without being caught by Satan will win the lottery and be rich forever.
Another superstition is that single men don’t like to carry the Saint John icon on their shoulders during the procession of the holy burial, because they believe they will never get married.
In rural towns in the northwestern Guanacaste province and elsewhere, a cloth effigy of Judas is burned at midnight. Afterward, mischievous people collect anything they find in front of houses (oxcarts, shoes, garden tools, etc.) and put them all in the town soccer field. In some towns, people must pay the church to recover their belongings, and the church donates the money to the poor or uses it for restoration work.
Few Ticos who lived through it will forget the tremendous earthquake the night of April 2, 1983, remembered as El Terremoto del Sábado Santo (Holy Saturday Earthquake). Many took it as a sign from heaven; some communities were holding Mass or burning Judas when the 7.1-magnitude quake shook the country. Since then, people are a little nervous on Holy Saturday.
This story was first published in 2009.
Virtual Semana Santa procession
This year, processions and church services throughout Costa Rica have been suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In lieu of the in-person events, we hope you enjoy this Tico Times video of the 2017 procession through the streets of San José:
