April Fool’s Day, Chilean style
Even a seasoned expat is always learning new things about her adopted culture. There’s plenty of stuff I don’t know about the US, so I definitely don’t expect to have Chile 100% figured out after 3 years. It turns out that the 28th of December is Día de los Inocentes, or the Chilean version of April Fool’s Day.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sashawolff/ / CC BY 2.0
Yesterday morning, I walked into the office to some serious gossip. A coworker told me that according to Facebook, our colleagues were having some major life changes – one was apparently leaving the company, and the other was going to become a father. We agreed that it was kind of crazy that two people would share such big news on the same day, but we could also see how someone who’d been working really long hours would leave the company and how someone in a long-term relationship would decide to have a child. In fact the strangest part of it all was when I saw the supposed dad-to-be and asked how his weekend was – not even the slightest mention of his new family member.
Wanting to respect his privacy – other coworkers were around, maybe he didn’t want them to know yet – I said nothing. And I’m glad I didn’t because it turns out that both the baby and the new job were totally made up. Feliz Día de los Inocentes!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/yxejamir/ / CC BY 2.0
I just Googled information on this day, trying to find out more about its origins and am now even more confused than before. It would appear, at least according to Wikipedia, that this day of pranks relates back to the Massacre of the Innocents. Way back when, King Herod ordered the massacre of all boys under two in Judea in an attempt to kill the newborn baby Jesus. This massacre supposedly took place on December 28, although both the date and the factual nature of the incident itself are questionable.
So what do martyred little boys known as innocents have to do with pranks? I still have no idea. Wikipedia doesn’t either, and searching for “historia día de los inocentes” got me no closer to a conclusive answer. All I can tell you is that if you happen to be in Spain or Latin America next December 28, don’t be too quick to believe everything you hear. Oh, and definitely don’t lend anyone anything – supposedly money and possessions lent on Día de los Inocentes never have to be returned.
Emily Williams is a US gringa living in Santiago, Chile. She writes about expat life at AffordableCallingCards.net and on her personal blog, Don’t Call Me Gringa, and loves hearing from readers!
Tags: Chile, expat life