Costa Rica

Easter around the world

Our contributors describe Easter celebrations in their countries, how traditions have changed over the years and the history and significance of those celebrations. They share their family traditions as well. Learn more about Easter in Australia, Costa Rica, France, Portugal and the United States.

Photo: Australian Bilby Appreciation Society

Australia – Liz

Easter in Australia can be summed up in one, sweet and very commercially oriented word – chocolate! For at least a month leading up to Easter chocolate eggs and bunnies can be spied creeping their way all over the supermarket shelves. While the religious meaning of Easter is pertinent for some, most Australians enjoy the four day weekend and chocolate fest that ensues.

Popular options include the Lindt gold bunny, Cadbury crème eggs and the uniquely Australian chocolate bilby, a chocolate incarnation of a near extinct native animal, similar to a bandicoot. People also love to scoff hot cross buns which appear in bakeries during the month leading up to Easter.

The Easter bunny traditionally leaves chocolate eggs for kids overnight in the vein of Santa Claus, while some families have adopted the Easter egg hunt, though this isn’t something that has always been typical of the Australian Easter (when I was a kid no-one did this – I think we’ve adopted this from Europe and the US in recent years). However the chocolate arrives, as long as it does I say!

Costa Rica – Nuria

Nuria shared that “in Costa Rica it does have a very religious meaning, and we actually celebrate the whole week, so for us it’s “Holy Week” instead of just “Easter”. Read more about Costa Rican Easter celebrations here. (more…)

Picture Postcards: Sunset in Costa Rica

This month we are doing an “Anything You Like” theme on Picture Postcards. The contributors are sending in photos of just about anything that they feel shows something interesting about their country. Starting us off is Nuria’s photo of a beautiful Costa Rican sunset.

Read more:
Nuria from Costa Rica: Living the Pura Vida
5 Interesting Facts About Costa Rica
Celebrating Peace and Freedom in Costa Rica

Happy Valentine’s Day!

This day honors one or more early Christian martyrs named Saint Valentine, and today it is celebrated in over 100 countries around the world. Take a look at what some of our contributors have to say about it!

Valentine’s Day in the USA (By Jason, our contributor from the US)

As I child I remember getting a packet of Valentine’s cards and hand writing the names of every child in my class on the back of factory-made cards and putting each one inside an envelope addressed to each kid in my class.  I carried these to school in a brown paper bag then I put one on each classmate’s desk.  At the end of the day, I collected the exact same number of cards from my classmates and carried them home in the same brown paper bag.  I enjoyed reading each one.

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The etiquette of visiting around the world

Leave shoes on or take them off? Bring flowers or wine? Call in advance or drop in? What to do?

Some of our contributors got their heads together and came up with a very useful guide on how to avoid social blunders when visiting these countries: Canada, Spain, France, Costa Rica, United Sates, England,

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Nuria from Costa Rica: Living La Pura Vida!

Nuria, our regional Pocket Cultures contributor from Costa Rica, shares why she joined the Pocket Cultures team. “It is simply wonderful to be able to share my culture because I learn more about it and become more aware of it, which makes me value it even more.” Such an excellent way to describe why we on the Pocket Cultures team are enjoying writing about our cultures (or the cultures we live in)!

Tell us a bit about yourself

My name is Nuria Villalobos and I am a professor of English as a Foreign Language. I work at Universidad Nacional and currently study a Master’s in the Teaching of Spanish as a Second Language. I speak Spanish, English and Portuguese and would like to learn many more languages. I am from Costa Rica and I have always lived here, except for two years when I was an exchange student in the United States. That has been the best experience of my life because I learned a lot about myself, my culture and the world. Since I made so many international friends, I got really interested in cultures, and that’s when I discovered the passion I have for them.
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PocketCultures world tour: best of 2011

Happy New Year! Our roundup of 2011 begins with a reminder that 1st January is not the beginning of a new year throughout the world. Carla wrote that Brazilians consider the year to start after February’s carnival, and Anu wrote about new year celebrations which take place at different times in different parts of India. Of course many parts of the world do celebrate the start of the New Year on January 1st, and Sandra’s post explained all about new year celebrations in Portugal.

Bolo Rei – part of the New Year celebrations in Portugal. Credit.

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