During these publicholidays the entire judicial system is closed, all banks, post offices, museums and government offices are closed. Most businesses are closed and the few that do open do so with less staff.
Of course they celebrate the usual holidays as Christmas and New Year’s in Costa Rica, but besides these, there are lots of typical local and Costa Rican holidays.
The biggest holiday in Costa Rica is Semana Santa, or Easter Holy Week, which is celebrated with religious processions and masses. The official holiday falls on the Thursday and Friday before Easter Sunday, but in reality the country shuts down for the entire week and many places offer few if any services. Public transportation does not run on Thursday and Friday and all alcohol sales are prohibited Thursday and Friday. Most Tico’s go to the beach with their entire families to celebrate Semana Santa.
The first of May is Día de los Trabajadores (Labor Day). Parades, marches and cricket matches, fiesta’s, street fairs with music, dancing, traditional food and Toro a la Tica (bullfights without the bloodshed) are the highlights of this public holiday.
Virgen de Los Angeles is a national holiday celebrating the patron saint of Costa Rica, La Negrita. It is celebrated on August 2nd with religious pilgramages from all parts of the country, and even as far as from neighboring countries Panama and Nicaragua, to the Nuestra Senora de los Angeles Basicila in Cartago.
The 15th of August is mothers day in Costa Rica; Día de la Madre. Mother's day is a national bank, school and business holiday in Costa Rica.
September 15th is Independence Day in Costa Rica. Costa Rica gained independence from Spain on the same day in 1821 as the rest of Central America. The day is celebrated with parades, traditional dancers and street parties that end with the arrival of the freedom Torch, delivered from Nicaragua to Cartago by relay runners . That’s when everyone in the country stops and simultaneously sings the national anthem.