Another Place, Another Celebration

If you were in Costa Rica, where my children's grandparents on their father's side were from, you would celebrate the 6th of January, the Fiesta de los Tres Rejes, the Feast of the Three Kings, as a day for giving of gifts. Of course, Christmas is also celebrated, it is the biggest day for mass, and just about everybody goes to mass on Christmas Eve.

Costa Rica was the first country in the world to constitutionally abolish its army.

In April 2003 the constitutional ban on presidential re-election was reversed, allowing Óscar Arias (Nobel Peace Prize, 1987) to run for President for a second term. In 2006 Óscar Arias was re-elected in tight elections, running on a platform of promoting free trade.

While I don't think the CAFTA agreement was a good idea, I respect and admire Oscar Arias who won the Nobel Peace Prize for throwing out our army under Oliver North that was illegally conducting raids on the Nicaraguan Sandanistas from bases located on Costa Rican soil.

Like most Americans, I was totally ignorant of these facts until I became a member of a family that included people from the country I'm sharing with you now. It's regrettable that we don't really learn about other countries, and I hope that these few little lessons will not be a bad thing for Christmas, please consider them a gift I like having been given, and which I pass on in the spirit of giving.

The picture is one of the rainforest, one of the country's more beautiful aspects. We all have heritages that we can be proud of, some plain English and some with more diversity.

I do hope your coming year will be rewarding as its promise is.