Preparing for Semana Santa
If you are a first time visitor to the Dominican Republic, and will be arriving from March 28th to April 4th, you will no doubt come accross numerous celebrations, festivities and National holidays.Semana Santa or Holy Week is celebrated throughout the Catholic religion at Easter and is a time for reflection and prayer. This year, the holiday runs from Sunday March 28th and ends on Easter Sunday, April 4th. The DR has become well known for the way it celebrates its National Holidays, but this is a little more than a week long holiday! Dominicans do respect this time of year with numerous religious activities leading upto the resurrection of Christ, but you will find a large proportion of them on the beach!
The weather always seems to be perfect for Semana Santa, it is warm (not too hot), clear skies, and the seas crystal clear - add to that great food, drink, no work and an influx of tourists...and there you have it..perfection!
You will find most offices will close on the Thursday afternoon before Good Friday, and won´t open again until after Easter Sunday.
There is always a small downside to celebrations such as this, so due to the amount of accidents during the week, all motorized watersports are banned in the country until after the celebrations have passed. The Government has always a major advertising campaign telling people about the effects of drinking and driving, or drinking and swimming, but unfortunately there are always casualties.
Published in
Dominican Republic News Archive
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