It seems to begin earlier and earlier each year. Costa Ricans are engulfed in preparations for their favorite season Christmas. If you’re ever short on conversation topics, just ask someone how their portal (nativity scene) is coming along, and watch the eyes begin to sparkle, hear the voice pick up speed, and catch the excitement of Costa Rica’s warmest tradition.
Stores are perhaps the first to get in on the action, putting up Christmas decorations and selling bright, flashing lights for the tree even before the brujos of Halloween have been put to rest. Families wait a little longer, but not too long. Somewhere about the middle of November, mothers, fathers, children, grandparents, aunts, uncles everyone begins worrying about this year’s portal.
Will it be bigger, brighter and more beautiful than last year’s? Front yards, living rooms and other parts of the house become transformed into the elaborate manger scenes. Portales are decorated with moss and sawdust, and placed in the most prominent place in the house according to tradition, if you want a new house, you should build your portal on the floor. Also, the basic pasito figures (the Holy Family, Three Kings and animals) should be given to you as gifts, never bought, to insure good luck. (You can buy additional figures.)
Having a beautiful and elaborate portal has become a near-obsession for Ticos, and some portales fill a whole room and include tiny villages, lakes, bridges, paths and such non-traditional characters as Donald Duck, Goofy and Winnie the Pooh; anything goes in a Tico portal. Popular belief has it that the bigger the nativity scene, the greater the faith. If this is true, San José’s National Theater is probably the most faithful, with its giant and impressive portal prominently displayed each year.
Local Channel 7 TV joins in the fun by sending camera crews far and wide to seek out original portales. Midway through December, parents gather their children for the daily posadas, or Christmas caroling, which goes on through Christmas Eve. Don’t be surprised if these sweet little angels and shepherds steal your heart and you find yourself humming along.
Of course, there are the traditional Christmas decorations trees (the real ones are cheaper) and wreaths made of cypress, laced with lights, colored paper, lace, and even strings of coffee beans. San José lights up its streets, avenues and trees, and many houses, hotels and office buildings join in. The entire month of December is fiesta month. On Dec.15, thousands line San José’s Paseo Colón and Ave. 2 to see the annual Festival of Light, a nighttime parade of luminous floats, fairy-tale costumes, music and fireworks.
Concerts, rides and typical carnival events are also frequent events in various communities throughout the month, the most famous occurring in Zapote starting Dec. 26, where las corridas, or Costa Rican-style free-for-all bullfights, are held. Taunting the bull is a matter of national usually male pride, and the bull is harassed, not harmed. Mechanical rides, typical food stalls and spook houses are part of the fun at Zapote.
One can also find smaller versions of the Zapote-style fair scattered throughout the countryside. In the days preceding Christmas Eve, families begin preparing the seasonal tamales, filled with chicken, pork and vegetables. Preparing tamales is a family event. Once the hard work is done, nobody has to worry about cooking during the holidays just heat up a tamal and you have a meal. Tamales are often exchanged as gifts on Christmas Eve, too.
Christmas Eve is spent preparing for the birth of baby Jesus. Most people go to Rooster Mass, usually held between 10 and 11 p.m. Children are the main protagonists, acting out that ancient night and taking their turn in the spotlight in front of the church. After church, everyone enjoys a tamal and coffee at midnight and the kids go to bed to await the visit of El Niño (and sometimes Santa) during the night. At midnight, too, the baby Jesus is placed in the empty creche in the portal.
Dec. 25 is generally a day of relaxation. Children play with their new toys while the parents visit with relatives. Many join a mass exodus to the beach. After Christmas Eve, the religious begin saying their rosaries in honor of the newborn Christ. Families and neighbors gather at a predetermined house between Dec. 24 and Feb. 2 to say their rosaries and celebrate the reza al Niño with enormous quantities of food homemade bread, coffee, cake, rice with chicken, ice cream and of course the famous rompope, or eggnog with sufficient rum to give a nice Christmas kick.
Only a few manage to escape without the traditional stomachache from eating too much. Other activities include the post-Christmas Tope a San José parade down Ave. 2 of what seems like every horse in the country. Thousands of horses descend on the capital from every nook and cranny of the country, along with their decked-out owners, who proudly demonstrate their equestrian skills.
Carnival is officially kicked off on Dec. 27. Like other countries carnivals, parades fill streets with brightly colored floats, wonderful music and elaborate costumes that sparkle with color. Bands, drummers and street dancers keep things moving. New Year’s Eve is a great excuse to party. Ticos join the universal movement to ring in the new Christian year by downing guaro (locally made cane liquor) and Imperiales (the local brew), funding what is undoubtedly the local cervecerza’s most profitable party.
