INDEPENDENCE DAY

The day after we arrive in Argentina, 9 July, is a Public Holiday celebrated as Independence Day. Most people have the day off from work and Government services and facilities are closed.

Here’s an explanation of Argentina’s celebration of 9 July which does not reflect so well on the British:

http://blisstree.com/live/independence-day-in-argentina-405/

Here’s one that is a bit more encouraging, given that it was the British who led the alliance that defeated Napoleon Bonaparte:

http://www.totallyargentina.org/show_gallery.php?id_gallery=19

So it would not have happened without us, right?

Here is a curiosity from four years ago:

http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Argentina_celebrates_its_independence_day_covered_in_white

…hopefully they are right to say this was a once-in-a-hundred-years occurrence!

Confusingly, Argentina also celebrates 25 May as an anniversary of independence – this was the date in 1810 of the first declaration of self-government of the wider United Provinces of South America, including Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay, whereas 9 July 1816 saw a formal and final declaration of independence and the founding of the modern state we now know as Argentina.

Loads of countries have independence days:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_day

Britain does not because we have never been a colony, (except of Rome, and we were probably sorry rather than pleased to see them go. They took all the roads and sanitation with them. And the spaghetti and pizza, and it took us more than a thousand years to get them back).

Because it is the bicentennial of the May 25 events, we can probably expect the 9 July celebrations to be major in scale. Practice your Viva Argentinas!