QCOSTARICA – The Municipality of San José announced this Wednesday that this year, for the second consecutive year, there will not be the traditional year-end celebration of the Festival de la Luz (the Festival of Light).
The municipality also canceled the “Carnaval”, “Tope” and “Zapote Fair”.
San Jose mayor Johnny Araya made it clear that the decision was made due to the pandemic.
“We have no alternative, we must act responsibly,” said Araya, explaining that the decision was made after holding a meeting with the Minister of Health, Daniel Salas and the projection that the authorities have on the virus for the coming months.
The mayor added that by December of this year the advance in the population vaccinated against covid-19 would not yet be enough to prevent massive infections
Araya stressed that for the capital’s municipality, the priority has been and always will be the well-being of the citizenship, for which he invited to understand that this decision to suspend the massive year-end activities, is intended to protect the citizenship and save lives.
“We have no alternative, we have to act responsibly,” Araya said at a press conference.
Last year, these activities were not carried out for the same reason, putting a brake on a tradition of many years in the country.
Yes, there will be bulls
The only event that remains standing, so far, is the bullfights, which will take place without a live audience. The event will be televised.
In 2020, the event was canceled at the last minute by the Ministry of Health.
The same could happen for 2021, all depends on what happens with the issue of the virus.
Mayor Araya also announced that they are working on other activities, mainly to engage the school bands that are an integral part of the Festival de la Luz tradition.
Too early for a decision?
Right now you may be asking why make a decision so early in the year, after all, we are still in April and the year-end activities are in December.
Well, these events take time to prepare, with the pandemic, in addition to the normal preparations, there are Health protocols for mass activities, which makes it even more difficult for events of this type to be carried out.
which starts almost after the end of the previous event.
