Since I started working here in Argentina I haven't gone more than two weeks in a row without a long weekend due to a holiday. In the beginning I didn't really pay attention to what the holidays were for because I was too busy enjoying my days off to really care. But with the passage of time the novelty eventually wore down and soon I found myself curious as to how businesses could cope in this country considering the fact that their partners in the rest of South America are hard at work while they're grilling on the barbecue. One student told me that the day off almost isn't even worth it because partners from Brazil, Chile and the rest of the continent, knowing that you're about to be out of the office for an extended period of time, start flooding you the day before in an effort to get everything they need from you before you become unattainable.
We celebrated Flag Day this past Monday and it's a day that commemorates the creation of Argentina's national flag. If you look it up you'll notice that Flag Day is officially listed as occurring on June 20th..... and I'm writing about it today (June 18th) because yes, you read right, the entire country celebrated it on Monday, June 15th.
Apparently the government finds it really annoying when national holidays fall on weekends (don't we all?) so they've decided that it is their gubernatorial right and obligation to move national holidays around at their discretion so that they fall on weekdays. The official justification for this is that it encourages tourism.
But what is their exact criteria when choosing a day to move the holiday to? I would've thought that proximity to the official date would be the main idea here, but if I were right Flag Day would've been marked for public celebration this Friday, the 19th instead of the 15th. Or, if they wanted to keep it to a Monday, then why not the 22nd which is still closer to the actual holiday than the previous Monday?
In a country where corruption is semi-accepted as a part of government I like to imagine a bunch of old men sitting in a dark library, drinking scotch and smoking cigars with their diaries out on their laps, figuring out which weekend they can all agree on to take a group trip, a boys only weekend, down to the beach together.
The next holiday is Independence Day (the second of two in fact), and much like our own American Independence Day it is so intrinsically linked to an actual date that to move it would be almost blasphemous. This year Independence Day falls on a Thursday, so it seems highly probable that the government will either declare Friday a day off as well, to promote tourism, or 99% of the population will just take the day off anyway.
Here is a list of all the national holidays for 2009 in Argentina:
1 Jan New Year's Day
24 Mar Truth and Justice Day
2 Apr Veterans' Day (Malvinas- don't call them the Falklands!)
10 Apr Good Friday
1 May Labour Day
25 May National Day (Anniversary of the 1810 Revolution).
15 Jun National Flag Day (Belgrano Day)
9 Jul National Independence Day
17 Aug San Martín Day (Anniversary of the Death of General José de San Martín)
12 Oct Race Recognition Day
8 Dec Immaculate Conception Day
25 Dec Christmas Day
Race Recognition Day has got to be the most creative reason for a national holiday I've ever heard of.
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