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Dia del Amigo
Dia del Amigo 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.
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, Cordoba 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.
References
In Spanish unless otherwise noted.
EducaRed - Educational organization (explains the origin of the celebration)
Dia del Amigo (personal webpage)
Dia del Amigo Dia del Amigo History and links
20 de Julio - Dia Internacional del Amigo - Official website of the Santa Cruz Province.
La Capital, 2005-07-13. En Rosario ya no hay lugar para festejar el Dia del Amigo.
Clarin, 2005-07-20. Por el dia del amigo, los celulares estuvieron al rojo vivo.
See also
International Friendship Day (first Sunday of August)
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article Dia del Amigo
