by Rod Hughes

If the National Weather Institute has it right, it may rain on your parade here Thursday and Friday, reported Costa Rica’s leading daily, La Nacion. But whether it could alleviate the driest dry season in some years was not part of the report.

For those readers who have never lived in a Catholic country, perhaps it should be explained that Easter is more than overflowing churches on Sunday. Friday is the big day with processions flowing through the streets depicting the fateful day of Christ’s execution. And speaking of dry seasons, no alcoholic beverages will be sold Thursday and Friday.

Work begins slowing down Monday before Easter. Those not particulary devout will head for the beach in a steady stream of cars beginning Wednesday and all but emergency services and supermarkets will be closed Thursday and Friday. (For vacationers, the good news is that Costa Rica has two coastlines with great numbers of beaches, far more than one would expect of such a small country. The bad news: unless you made reservations long in advance, no hotel rooms will be available.)

At one time, using one’s auto during Holy Week (as Easter is called) was considered, if not sacriligious, at least bad form but that custom went the way of the oxcart in the 1960s. Fortunately, the habit of young men to throw rocks at moving cars to enforce the custom has also disappeared, being a most un-Costa Rican example of intolerance.