Dia de Independencia

Above: A parade Sunday night in our neighborhood. We thought is was a cool picture of all the lights from the faroles (lanterns).

This weekend Costa Rica (and most of the other countries in Central America) celebrated their independence from Spain. The official independence day is Monday, but there were lots of celebrations Sunday night as well.

Back on September 14, 1821, a group of Central American leaders met in Guatemala City (then the capital of the Republic of Central America) to decide if they wanted to declare independence from Spain. As they were meeting, people waited outside all through the night hoping for their independence. They waiting holding faroles (or lanterns), and so every year in Costa Rica, on the eve of Independence Day, everyone gathers with homemade falores at 6 pm to sing the national anthem and march around the neighborhoods.

We had so much fun at the parade Sunday night, that we decided to head downtown on Monday for more parades and festivities. The parades are all school children dancing, performing, playing drums and xylophones, and waving flags.

Above: The parade marching through downtown.

As always, it was great to see some more Costa Rican culture and enjoy a nice day off.