Argentines are no strangers to holidays. There has been about 5 days off from school/work since I have been here, even yesterday for example. A lot of them are new. As in the government will declare a holiday and then everyone has the day off from work. Like a snow day! With a lot more wine and a lot less snow. It’s pretty great. It’s hard to get a clear idea of what they all celebrate. But no one is complaining. “Friends Day” is a personal favorite.
As the token American in certain circles of friends, people here asked me about Thanksgiving and I told them the old Pilgrim - Native American tale (leaving out the true parts, of course) and they got it right away. We take a day off to remind ourselves to be thankful for the things in our lives that we may take for granted, and as an excuse to get the family together and take a little time off. Because why not. Spending more time together as a family certainly isn’t something that needs to be explained to the people here. Many get together for lunch on Sundays with the entire extended family.
Living abroad is a quick reminder of the comforts back home that can easily be taken for granted. Catalytic converters, for example. The Argentine’s are most curious about the traditions and I explain them, and that a lot of people take it really seriously, getting the whole family together and preparing a huge feast. Others take it less seriously (I had some Chow Mein in DC’s Chinatown last year with a friend). Either way it’s nice to have a well respected non-religious holiday that we can all enjoy, and this year us GW kids did it the right way down here in BA; with a little help from our friends.
Emily, our program director at the Di Tella was nice enough to have all of us over for dinner, and a few Argentines came as well. She is actually from Ohio, and was pretty on top of the traditional food; we had stuffing and cranberry sauce and turkey and pumpkin pie.. the whole nine. It was great! One of the colonials, Mark, wouldn’t let us eat until we all said what we were thankful for, and the Argentines chipped in as well. A lot of us were happy to be here in Argentina and still having a great time after about 4 months.
And as the tradition goes, everyone ate way too much and fell asleep soon after.
-Giordano