The people of Costa Rica are predominately white, with 7 percent mestizos, and blacks and American Indian making up the other 4 percent. Spanish is the common language. The majority of the people are Roman Catholic.
Men are lax in their practice of religion.
Many people do not attend church except for weddings, funerals, and baptisms. Devotion to God is not an everyday thing. Religious holidays dot the calendar. The Christmas holiday, Los Posadas, begins on December 15th. Children go house to house asking for lodging, just as Mary and Joseph did thousands of years ago in Bethlehem.