Classroom lesson · Festival · 🇦🇷 Argentina

Día de la Tradición - Tradition Day

A day to celebrate the gauchos and the spirit of the Pampas

What is it?

Día de la Tradición - 'Tradition Day' - is a holiday on 10 November every year. Argentines use it to celebrate the gauchos, the traditional cowboys of the Pampas, and to remember the songs, dances, food and crafts of the countryside.

Tell me more

Gauchos were the horsemen who looked after huge herds of cattle on the wide grasslands of Argentina, hundreds of years ago. They wore loose trousers called 'bombachas', wide leather belts decorated with silver coins, and a flat hat. They became a national symbol of independence and skill on horseback.

On Tradition Day, schools and towns across Argentina put on festivals. There are horse shows, music with guitars and accordions, traditional dancing (especially a stomping dance called 'malambo'), and lots of asado. Many kids dress up as little gauchos.

The town of San Antonio de Areco, north of Buenos Aires, holds the biggest celebration. People come from all over the country to watch horse skills, see craftspeople make leather and silver work, and eat empanadas in the town square.

The date - 10 November - was chosen because it is the birthday of José Hernández, a writer who wrote a famous long poem about gaucho life. Argentines use the day to remember not just the gauchos themselves but the wider idea: that traditions and stories are worth passing on.

In the classroom

Walk your class through this in 15 minutes.

Talk together

Discussion prompts

  1. 01Why might a country have a day for celebrating ordinary working people from long ago?
  2. 02What clothes, songs or dances from where you live would you want to share with a class on the other side of the world?
  3. 03What does 'tradition' mean to you? Is something only a tradition if it is very old?
Try this

Classroom activity

Each pupil brings in (or describes) one tradition from their family - a food, a phrase, a song, a game, a way of celebrating a birthday. Make a class 'Day of Traditions' display. As a class, vote which one of you would teach a visitor first.

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