Our final week in Atenas coincides with Semana Santos - Holy Week, the week from Palm Sunday to Easter. (It also coincides with part of Passover, which began on Monday evening, March 25.) For Costa Ricans, Semana Santos is the biggest holiday of the year - bigger than Christmas or New Year's or any other holiday. Schools are closed for the week. Thursday and Friday - Maundy Thursday and Good Friday - are national holidays. Banks, post offices, and other government functions are closed, as are most retail stores and restaurants. Buses are on reduced holiday schedules.
Semana Santos is also a big vacation week for Costa Ricans. Many go away on vacation. The ones who live inland often head for the beaches, especially the mid-coast Pacific beaches. The ones who live near the beaches might go inland to the big cities or to tourist spots in the mountains. Playas del Coco, the Guanacaste beach town where we spent February, is probably swarming in tourists this week. Atenas is not a tourist destination, and things are a little quieter here than usual.
For us, this holiday week has limited our mobility outside Atenas, for sightseeing, and has somewhat limited our options here in Atenas as well. On the other hand, it has provided us with opportunities for rest and reflection on our two months here in Costa Rica. And though we are in Atenas for this Holy Week, we will not be here for Easter itself. We leave Saturday for Escazu, our next and final destination in Costa Rica, and we will experience Easter there.
The big Catholic Church in town - the only church we've seen here so far - is a block away from where we are staying. We hear the bells, which have been chiming a lot all month, which I assume is related to the Lenten period. There have been services every day. Sometimes we can hear the music played during the Mass, perhaps even part of the priest's homily, which appears to be broadcast on a sound system during major services.
Ever since we arrived here, we have noticed that many homes have in front of them a wooden cross draped with beautiful purple cloth, as does the church as well. This is not a custom I have observed in the states, but it seems similar to the Christmas wreaths we use, which were originally a symbol of Advent.
Draped cross, Easter season, Catholic Church, Atenas, Costa Rica. (Photo by Connie)
On Palm Sunday, in the late morning, we witnessed, from our balcony, a procession of about a hundred people heading toward the church. The people in the lead were dressed in the costume of ancient shepherds. The procession reminded me of the Christmas Pageant we have in our small home town each year. Only, the featured persona was a statue of a robed and crowned king, seated in a throne, carried aloft by a few men. Presumably, the statue is meant to represent Christ entering Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. (I am not a Catholic and am not as knowledgable as I could be about these Easter holidays, so please forgive any inaccuracies.)
Later that evening, as we were enjoying dinner with a friend at a nearby outdoor restaurant, we began to hear chanting, which came closer and closer. Across the street, we saw a small band of people coming along the sidewalk, chanting. They walked up to a house - one with a cross and purple cloth draped on it - and began to sing. This was reminiscent of Christmas caroling back home. As we walked back to our apartment and were approaching home, this group - or another like it - was walking by our place, chanting and singing. They paused and sang a little and then moved on, serenading each home until they turned the corner and headed up the street towards the church.
On Monday afternoon, we were standing on our balcony when we began to hear the sounds of a horn blowing. This sound went on for quite a while. I said to Bob, "that's strange. That sounds like a Shofar." A Shofar is a special horn, usually a ram's horn, that is blown on special occasions in the Jewish religion. We googled Passover and discovered that the first day of Passover would begin that evening at sundown. I wondered, and still wonder, if there was any connection between the sound of that horn and either Passover or Easter. We have not seen any evidence of a Jewish community in Atenas. And the percentage of the population in Costa Rica that is Jewish is less than 1%, while the percentage that is Catholic is over 70% and the total percentage that are Christian is over 90%. Well, speculation about the blowing of the horn is a puzzle we probably won't solve.
Later, a P.S...
It is three days later and most of Semana Santos is over. We have now been through the two national holidays - Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. They have been a very quiet two days. Now it is Good Friday evening. Below us, we can hear families returning from their holiday, unpacking, laughing and talking.
These have been slow days for us, with time for reflection and deep conversations. We are both ready to leave - not only Atenas but also Costa Rica - though I am guessing that our last few days in Escazu will be interesting too. But we are missing home and ready to be back - ready to resume our regular lives together, our relationship stronger than ever. (We passed the one-year anniversary of our living together at the beginning of March.) Adelante!
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