Halloween in Costa Rica

Our North American Halloween is not a celebration in Costa Rica. Instead, November 2nd is All Soul's Day - a very important day in the Catholic and Tico calendar. Locals honour their departed, flowers are placed on gravestones, and masses are held in the churches. It's different from the Mexican Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead).

We finally abandoned Halloween when we lived in Canada. We got fed up with having to buy overpriced junk candy to give to kids that we didn't even know. And the doorbell rang for so long and upset our cat. So we became one of those households that turned the outdoor lights off on October 31st.

But here, in our little town of Atenas, a bit of the Halloween tradition is carried on. Every year, we have two Halloween goblins show up at our gate and we are happy to carry on the traditions from their home country (the U.S.A.).

It almost didn't happen this year ... we had a major rain and lightning storm for most of the afternoon. Our laneway out to our gate was flooded, making it impossible to walk to the gate to open it.

In the nick of time, the storm abated, the water receded and we were able to greet our goblins.