The traditional romería, an annual pilgrimage of Catholics to the Costa Rican city of Cartago, has been canceled for the second straight year due to the pandemic.

The Episcopal Conference, which groups the Catholic Church’s leaders in Costa Rica, is preparing faithful for a Covid-appropriate Easter Holy Week. 

The Catholic Church of Costa Rica has asked faithful to join an online celebration rather than making the pilgrimage to Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. 

An estimated 2 million people make the pilgrimage to Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago. 

An estimated 2 million people made the pilgrimage to Basílica de Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles in Cartago on Friday. 

Happy Virgen de los Ángeles Day from all of us at The Tico Times.

On the morning of Aug. 2, 1635, a young indigenous girl named Juana Pereira went to collect firewood like she did every morning. She was walking barefoot through the brush near a spring when she was surprised by a figure of a woman holding a child in her arms.

The scene at the Basílica.

An estimated two million people walked to the Basílica de Nuestra Señora de Los Ángeles in Cartago as part of the annual Catholic pilgrimage in Costa Rica known as "La Romería."

Many pilgrims come from afar to make good on different types of promises, such as Franklin Arturo Garita Quirós, from Paquera, Puntarenas, who was sued by the Environment Ministry in 1986 after he was accused of deforesting his property. He made a promise to the Virgin of Los Ángeles, known as "la negrita," that if he won the case, he would walk every year to her statue in Cartago, as he's done for the past 29 years.