Culture

Una celebración de Rican de la costa !!! A Costa Rican Celebration !!!

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__Costa Rican Celebrations __
 * 1) **Fiesta Santa Cruz**: The fiesta in Santa Cruz on the Nicoya peninsula takes place the second week in January and has a western flair with bullfights and a parade followed by a party with food, concerts and fireworks
 * 2) **Fiesta de los Diablitos**: The festival of the little devils takes place in the second half of February. An indigenous celebration wrapped around a re-enactment of a battle between the toro (Spanish troops) and the diablitos (Boruca Indians). Striking hand carved masks and traditional costumes decorate participants
 * 3) **Día de Juan Santamaría**: National holiday honoring a young fighter from Alajuela who defended his country to the death against William Walkers forces at the battle of Rivas in 1856. Parades, marching bands, dances and other celebrations extend through the week concentrated in Alajuela.
 * 4) **Día de los Trabajadores**: Labor Day. Parades, marches and the Presidential "state of the union" address to Congress and the people. Cricket matches are a highlight in Puerto Limón.
 * 5) **Fiesta de La Virgen del Mar**: The Fiesta of the Virgin of the Sea on the Saturday closest to the 16th is marked in Puntarenas by a procession of decorated fishing boats carrying a statue of La Virgen del Monte Carmelo (the city's patron saint) and a special mass. The secular celebrations include a week of parades, dances, regattas, parades and fireworks. Playas del Coco also celebrates the Virgin of the Sea.
 * 6) **Día de Guanacaste**: Guanacaste Day celebrates the annexation of Guancaste from Nicaragua in 1824. Street fiestas, folk dancing, topes (horse show/parade), traditional bullfights, rodeos and cattle shows are particularily colorful and exhuberant in the eponymous northwest region of Guanacaste and the Nicoya peninsula.

There are many more holidays & celebrations of the Costa Rican culture, but this is a selection of few from the many.

__Customs & Traditions__
 * 1) Hello and goodbyes
 * A light kiss on the cheek or air kiss with a kissing sound.
 * Women kiss women and women kiss men, but men do not kiss men.
 * Men either shake hands or give each other a one-armed hug.
 * [|Clothing]

__** Food: **__

One typical Costa Rican dish is the El casad which means married, is indeed a perfect marriage of beans, rice, fried plantains, salad, and meat that can be beef, chicken or fish.



**Music** media type="youtube" key="92ri5ioja_s" height="315" width="420" align="center"



Costa Rica's culture, is mixed with African, European and native languages. Costa Rica's music scene includes disco. People mainly attend nightclubs in San José. As in many other countries in Central America and abroad, American and British rock and roll and pop music are popular among younger crowds. Dance-based genres such as cumbia, marcado, merengue, lambada, salsa and soca are also popular. Tourists usually come across the popular folk dances such as Botijuela Tamborito and Cambute. A strong African influence on Costa Rica's Caribbean coast, the music is based on complex percussion rhythms such as the sinkit. The African musical tradition includes genres from Afro-Caribbean music such as rumba, calypso and, of course, reggae. Throughout Costa Rica as well as in other Central American countries, the marimba is a popular instrument. Folk dances include the official national dance called the Punto Guanacasteco. Guanacaste is known as Costa Rica's center for folk music

** Art **

Historically, Costa Rica has been rather ruined in the part of native arts and crafts. The country, with its comparatively tiny and heterogeneous pre-Columbian population destroyed at an before time period, had no exclusive cultural legacy that could glow a inspired mixture where the current and the traditional may merge. Public worries often catalysts to artistic expression felt elsewhere in the isthmus were lacking. More lately, creativity has been stifled by the Ticos' desire to praise the conservative lavishly and criticize hardly ever.

__Sports__

Surfing is popular on both of Costa Rica's coastlines and has become a haven for American surfers. Many prefer Costa Rica TO Hawaii. The Nicoya Peninsula on the Pacific side is peppered with geographic features, rock points, sandbars, spits, reefs and other breakers generate the waves of a true surfer's paradise. Other places like Jaco provide everything from a point and reef break to beach. Most of the adventurous surfers rent 4-wheel drive SUVs so they can get to the best breaks on dirt roads.

Football (Soccer) is a passion for the costa rican people. In this nation without military, soccer is the most popular sport among young people and adults. Even towns of 200 people have a soccer field in the central plaza. For international teams, the challenge of playing soccer in Costa Rica is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure

Theatre

//**Teatro Nacional de Costa Rica**//

The National Theatre stood as a cultural asset of the country during a time when coffee exports were a source of its success. It presents high quality performances, with artistic criteria being very high. The building is considered the finest historic building in the capital, and it is known for its exquisite interior which includes its lavish furnishings.