Costa Rican National Holiday

Independence Day

Costa Rica’s Independence Day is celebrated on September 15th.  It commemorates the independence of the entire Central America from Spain, which took place in 1821.  The news of the country’s independence reached the nation’s people about a month after the declaration of independence that occurred in Guatemala.

Costa Rica (meaning "rich coast" in Spanish), officially the Republic of Costa Rica (Spanish: Costa Rica or República de Costa Rica,), is a country in Central America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, Panama to the southeast, the Pacific Ocean to the west, and the Caribbean Sea to the east. The 2011 census counted a population of 4,301,712 people. The primary language spoken in Costa Rica is Costa Rican Spanish. It constitutionally abolished its army permanently in 1949, becoming the first and one of the few sovereign nations without a standing army.