Costa Rican Independance Day

Hi all,


It was an enjoyable week in the land of Doka coffee, Poas volcano and earthquakes. This week we had an earthquake. It was 5.3 on the Richter scale and located mostly on the north pacific coast. Joy. Earthquakes unsettle me more so than anything else here as they don't have easily noticeable signs. Tornados in the Midwest can be easily predicted and advance warning is common. Earthquakes, not so much.

Another important event this week was September 15th, Costa Rican's Independence Day! The week leading up to it meant decorating and preparing for celebration. On the 15th, there were parades and lots of absolutely adorable little girls and boys in traditional costume. The traditional costume is period 1820s and Spanish in origin. The independence celebrated for Costa Rica is from Spain in 1821. Costa Rica's current government formed in 1949 after a civil war. Like most Central American countries, Costa Rica's path to its current state is long and varied. But Costa Rica's birth and growth under the Spanish crown with an absence of native indigenous people, had long lasting cultural impacts; contributing to many of the cultural idiosyncrasies Costa Rica is known for today. Check out Wikipedia for all the details. It's really very interesting.

But what does Independence Day in a foreign country feel like? How should you observe it if you're not a nationalized citizen of the country? These are questions we had to answer for the first time.

Independence Day in a foreign country felt like any other day to me. I didn't feel the anticipation or strong patriotism of our US independence day. I did feel an intense respect for our host country and a desire to learn as much as possible about the day and its significance. With our son Corwin, we started learning. We looked up the Costa Rican national anthem and read the words. Corwin sings it every Monday at his school along with the US national anthem. He recognized the music and knew some of the words. We worked on translating those words to English and discussing what they meant. We talked about the importance of a stable, democracy to a country and its people. Keeping in mind our son is 8, so the higher level economic concepts of a stable government's impact on foreign investment, etc was a bit out of our discussion thread. Our discussion focused on the top line items and how they related to us. For example, a stable and democratic government meant companies would come to the country. If companies came to the country, those companies create jobs for people. If people have jobs, they can buy homes, cars, groceries and pay taxes to the government to support it. Disney "Circle of life" stuff but with an economic twist an 8 year old can understand.

All in, it was a very enjoyable day for us. We all had the day off. We watched parades on television and talked about the holiday and what it meant to us as a family. I made a pot roast. It felt like a Sunday. :)