Hello Family and Friends in Los Estados Unidos--
This post is to tell you that we're happy, healthy, and well fed this Christmas in Costa Rica! Recently, we experienced the more than one day long process of making tamalesthat people here eat for a month or more. We made 600 tamales, the kind typical in Costa Rica. Tamales are a traditional food around Christmas time where a pig is turned into porky masa deliciousness. There are preparations that occur in the days preceeding tamale making day: banana plant leaves are collected and loving washed by hand, parted into squares and dried for at least a day before use; masa is prepared with consume (broth) and other seasonings; rice is prepared with achiote (
a thick, deep-red seasoning), consume (broth), and salt; and zanhoria (carrots) and bingreen beans are steamed. Then, the pork is cooked and chunked. Finally an assembly line is formed with two banana leaf sheets, one big scoop of masa with a well for the rice, rice is added, topped with carrots and green beans. We'll post pictures of this here soon!
We also enjoyed dinner with a large part of our extended family. Nativity scenes are very important here. Most people have at least one in their living room and it's not just a small plastic or wood table decoration. Instead, it takes up the same amount of space or more that a Christmas tree does in the States. And, many are very elaborate with lights and large figurines that are passed down between family members. Our host Mom loves the smell of cyprus, so we enjoyed a tree of cyrpus branches and many homemade decorations around the house. Very beautiful! We'll post pictures of this soon!
We also enjoyed the decorations at our Grandmother Tica's home, including the traditional Christmas tree shown here and a smaller nativity scene. Similar to caroling, townspeople go door to door throughout December walking through each home to sing Christmas songs and pray near the nativity scene. Many Christmas carols are the same tunes with different lyrics. For example, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas" is "Blanca Navidad Suenos" Families also get together to pray the rosary and we participated in at least three of these ceremonies in the homes of our family and neighbors. After many hours of prayer and singing, we were treated to CJ's favorite...arroz con siempre and chips and beans and my favorite, ice cream. The prayers are to bless the house and the family in the next year and celebrate the birth of Jesus. It's was difficult to keep up with for us because everything is in Spanish of course. Our neighbors said we have a whole year to practice now for the next round of Christmas ceremonies.
Another tradition that was new to us and a blast to participate in was a human nativity. Each member of the family drew a scrap of paper and dressed to match their part. Similar to my host sister, I drew Angel and CJ drew drummer boy. We made due with what we had in the house...I used my white jacket and head lamp as a halo, and CJ used a wrapped box as a drum and two mallets from a lyra. But really you could draw anything--livestock, kings, queens, etc. Our host nephew was one of three kings.
Our family also enjoyed the Festival of Lights parade in Tucurrique.
Many student groups formed bands and practiced for months for this
performance. Our school has a band, but was not able to attend this
celebration because it happened after the end of school. Currently, the
students are on their "summer" break, which happens in December until
February and gives families a chance to go to the beach together or
enjoy festivals for navidad.
The lights and floats and clowns walking on stilts were spectacular. The fireworks were incredible in that they were lit directly overhead...maybe not the safest, but really pretty.
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| Happiest Kid at the Parade |
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| Cultural Exchange...We had to explain what the heck Alice and Wonderland was because our host family had never read this book. Reading for fun isn't really big here, because books are expensive. |
Pejibaye even had light displays in the center of town. For example, our fountain was dressed like a Christmas tree. And, we heard there was a beautiful service very (early) each morning in December in the Church. In fact, we heard the Father even asked our host family about us..."where are those gringos?" Just like an advent calendar, a candle is lit in this wreath to signify one day closer to Christmas. At the Christmas Eve service we attended, we saw the final red (pink) candle lit.
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| Church Christmas Decorations |
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| Nativity Advent Wreath |
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| No CJ...they're not all for you |
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| Our Special Christmas guest...Vaca...the stray dog from the Escuela must have followed us home or been scared inside by the fireworks. |
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| Some of our terrific Tico host family enjoying Christmas dinner together. |
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| Okay this one IS for you CJ...our host family gave us everything we needed to start a coffee farm, including the plant for CJ and chocolate coated coffee candy for me! |
What we learned during our first Tico Christmas is that the importance of family, tradition, sharing, taking time to create special memories with those you love, a love of caroling, decorations, and food is felt the world over. Although they've never seen snow except in movies and most of the houses with decorations also have palm plants, our whole town is dreaming of a white Christmas and sending their best wishes and thanks to our family, whom they've never met hundreds of miles away in the US. Wishing you and yours a very Merry Christmas!
