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Juan Santamaría Official Acts To Be On Monday, Though Holiday is Saturday

Although Saturday, April 11, is the legal holiday honouring Costa Rica' s hero, Juan Santamaría, the official acts, however, will be held on Monday, April 13.

The move of the ceremonies marking the 153rd anniversary of the heroic actions of Juan Santamaría is because April 11 falls within Semana Santa, although the holiday itself is observed on Saturday.

Due to the legal holiday, Semana Santa has three legal holiday days - Thursday (today), Friday and Saturday - where employers must pay double pay for any employee working on any or all of the three days.

And because the holiday falls on a weekend it is not moved to the following Monday, the same done with all legal holidays falling during the work week, save for Mother's Day, which is celebrated on August 15 no matter that it falls on a weekday.

Juan Santamaría (August 29, 1831 - April 11, 1856), is officially recognized as the national hero .

When U.S. filibuster William Walker overthrew the government of Nicaragua and attempted to conquer the other nations in Central America, including Costa Rica, in order to form a private slave-holding empire, Costa Rican president Juan Rafael Mora Porras called upon the general population to take up arms and march north to Nicaragua to fight against the foreign invader.

Santamaría, a poor laborer and the illegitimate son of a single mother, joined the army as a drummer boy. The troops nicknamed him el erizo ("the hedgehog") on account of his spiked hair.

After routing a small contingent of Walker's soldiers at Santa Rosa, Guanacaste, the Costa Rican troops continued marching north and reached the city of Rivas, Nicaragua, on April 8, 1856. Combat was fierce and the Costa Ricans were not able to drive Walker's men out of a hostel near the town center from which they commanded an advantageous firing position.
 

According to the traditional account, on April 11, Costa Rican General José María Cañas suggested that one of the soldiers advance towards the hostel with a torch and set it on fire. Some soldiers tried and failed, but finally Santamaría volunteered on the condition that, in the event of his death, someone would look after his mother. He then advanced and was mortally wounded by enemy fire. Before expiring he succeeded, however, in setting fire to the hostel, thus contributing decisively to the Costa Rican victory at Rivas. This account is apparently supported by a petition for a state pension filed on November 1857 by Santamaría's mother, as well as by government documents showing that the pension was granted. Various historians, however, have questioned whether the account is accurate, and if Santamaria died or not during that battle or another one.

At any rate, towards the end of the 19th century, Costa Rican intellectuals and politicians seized on the war against Walker and on the figure of Juan Santamaría for nationalist purposes.

The official acts to honour Juan Santamaría will be held in Alajuela at the Juan Santamaría park where a statue of Costa Rica's hero stands.

Statues of Juan Santamaría can also be found all over the country, one being west of the Juan Santamaría international airport (San Jose) arrivals exit. Oh yes, the airport was named after the hero as well, in case you missed that.