The International Arts Festival in November is launched with a street parade. Henry Bastos of www.gamcultural.com [1] leads the San José Art City Tour once every other month.
The Oxcart Festival (Festival de las Carretas), along Paseo Colón, in November, celebrates traditional rural life with a parade of dozens of oxcarts (carretas).
The Festival of Light (Festival de la Luz; mid-December) is a Christmas parade along Calle 42 highlighted by floats trimmed with colorful Christmas lights (6–10 p.m.). The lighting of the Children’s Museum (Calle 4 and Ave. 13, tel. 506/2238-4929, www.museocr.org [2]) in early December is an annual tradition, with fireworks and thousands of lights.
The annual running of the bulls occurs during Christmas and New Year’s at the fairground in Zapote with a tope (horse parade) and bull riding and taunting. There’s a special tourist-only section with fireworks. It coincides with a massive tope each December 26, when as many as 3,000 men and women ride down Paseo Colón and downtown.
Links:
[1] http://www.gamcultural.com
[2] http://www.museocr.org