Costa Rica: Fire Every 22
Minutes During Semana Santa
The Bomberos de Costa Rica (Firefighters)
are making an urgent call to the population
to not let children play with lighters or
matches, not thrown glass bottles in empty
lots or forests and keep the area around
your home clean of debris and brush, to
reduce the number of fires that are common
during the last few weeks of the dry season.
The Bomberos that provides firefighting
service to entire country say that a fire
occurs in Costa Rica every 22 minutes during
Semana Santa.
That claim is backed up by last years
response to 721 fires, an increase of almost
60% over 2008.
Particular attention will be paid by the
Bomberos on Holy Saturday, the day of the "Quema
de Judas" (Burning of Judas).
The burning of Judas is an Easter-time
ritual in many Orthodox and Catholic
Christian communities, where an effigy of
Judas Iscariot is burned. Other related
mistreatment of Judas effigies include
hanging, flogging, and exploding with
fireworks.
Though not an official part of the Easter
liturgical cycle, the custom is typically a
part of the reenactment of the story of the
Passion that is practiced by the faithful
during Easter.
In many parts of Latin America this practice
is a symbol of ridding one's self of evil
and new in spiritual purity. |
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