Día del Amigo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Día del Amigo (Spanish, Friend's Day) is a celebration of friendship, held annually on July 20, mainly in Argentina and Uruguay, but also in some other countries.
The idea for Friend's Day goes back to Argentine teacher, musician, and dentist Enrique Febbraro, who lobbied to turn the anniversary of the first moon landing into an international day of friendship. He argued that on this particular day, the whole world had been friends of the three astronauts. The first official recognition of the day came with decree No. 235/79 by the government of the province of Buenos Aires, which authorized the celebration and gave it official nature.
In Argentina, Friend's Day is often a good excuse for a common friendly gathering, though people also employ the day to get in contact with old and seldom-met friends and greet them. Since it is not a public holiday in Argentina, the gatherings tend to happen during the evening. It's also a common custom to give presents to your close friends as a sign of friendship.
Though Friend's Day has always been respected, in recent years it has turned into a very popular mass phenomenon. In 2005, too many well-wishing friends led to a temporary breakdown of the mobile phone network in the cities of Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario, comparable to the one experienced in 2004 on Christmas and New Year's Day. In the case of Rosario, La Capital newspaper reported that seats in most restaurants, bars and other establishments were already booked completely a week before the celebration. A downside of this popularity is that the large gatherings of young people, often consuming alcoholic beverages, each year produce a number of minor violent incidents and traffic accidents.
[edit] References
In Spanish unless otherwise noted.
- EducaRed - Educational organization (explains the origin of the celebration)
- Día del Amigo (personal webpage)
- 20 de Julio - Día Internacional del Amigo - Official website of the Santa Cruz Province.
- La Capital, 2005-07-13. En Rosario ya no hay lugar para festejar el Día del Amigo.
- Clarín, 2005-07-20. Por el día del amigo, los celulares estuvieron al rojo vivo.
[edit] See also
- International Friendship Day (first Sunday of August)
