189 Aniversario de la Independencia de Costa Rica

On September 15, Costa Rica celebrated 189 years of Independence from Spain! But there are four other countries that celebrate their independence from Spain on that day too: El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. The festivities for this day began weeks in advance with decorating the school, making of faroles (lanterns), and band, singing and dance practices.

The celebration began in the friary on Sunday, September 12.  We had the Francis Corps volunteers over for their first Sunday meal on their own.  I was making a cake and since I new that the Independence Day was coming up I made a Blue, White, and Red cake.

Here is what the cake looks like before cutting. The blue writing is vanilla icing with blue food dye and the white icing is cream cheese flavored.

Here is a photo of the cake with a red inside. It was a french vanilla cake mix with like 40 drops of red dye.

The celebrations officially began at the school on Monday, September 13, with the Inauguration of Civic Week.  We had an assembly in the school gym with lots of various activities including: procession of the National Flag and School banner, singing of the National Anthem, praying, show by the second graders, singing and playing of music by select students, typical Costa Rican dances, more singing, and the band playing.

Above is a photo of some 10th graders dancing.

Below is a photo of the Secondary School band.

Then the celebration continued on the Eve of Independence Day.  It is customary for schools all over Costa Rica to sing the National Anthem of Costa Rica at 6pm the day before Independence Day and to have a desfile de faroles (parade with lanterns). 

Here is photo of the Primary School Band preforming in the kiosk.

This is an example of a farole (lantern) that the children carry in the parade. Some of them were pretty elaborate. 

*This photo and the next four were taken by Mariela (one of the teachers).  Like me, she also has difficulty taking clear pictures at night, but I am grateful that she took them anyway.*

Myself and two other teachers - Mila and Illeana

Jordan and Mateo (2 of the FrancisCorps Volunteers) and I holding candles that are to be used to light the faroles of the children.  Mine made a mess of my habit!

During the parade the Primary School Band played the entire time and during various songs students from the Secondary School danced.  Here is a photo of some of the males dancing.

This is not a very clear or good photo, but I think it expresses the fun we had and the joy that is in our hearts!

On September 15, the actual day of Independence, it was pretty much a free day.  We were able to sleep in and enjoy the free day.  We did have a community meal for lunch and dinner which were both cooked by Fray Javier from Argentina.  They were both delicious!  For dinner he made pizzas and made one without gluten just for me.  We also celebrated the final day of the Relics of St. Anthony visiting us with a Mass in the evening.

Above is a picture of all of us eating lunch on the patio.  Beginning with the friar in the gray shirt on the left and going clockwise here are everyones' name: Luciano, Javier, Alvero, Walter, Victor, Nader, Francisco, and Jorge. Below is another photo of us at lunch, but now you can see the table decorations.