¡Argentina!: Felices 15

What happens when a girl celebrates their 15th birthday in Argentina? Of course, following the typical course of Latin American culture (as far as I have observed), they throw a HUGE party.

I was lucky enough to be invited to live the experience of celebrating a 15th birthday party here, so of course I accepted the adventure knowing it was something that I had probably never seen or experienced before.

Setting: a boliche or disco all decorated with felices 15 banners made by family and friends, table settings and desserts and pictures of the celebrated girl (in this case it was Pilar (her name))

The family typically gets everything ready before and there is a part that is strictly for family and close friends to eat and do whatever they do (I did not participate in that portion). Then the rest of everyone are invited to come and celebrate all starting at... 1 in the morning. My group did not actually show up until almost 2, but before that had just been a little bit of dancing but nothing had really started yet. However, in a short time, the boliche had filled with friends and the real festivities began. Picture taking, singing happy birthday, lighting giant sparkler candles, and then of course gorging on dessert food. Then there was dancing for a while and then some live singing and guitar followed by dancing and then a video of the what happened on the actually night of her birthday.

On the actually night of the birthday, the family dug a hole and filled it with water and then they carried out Pilar and first dunked her in the water to get her soaking (this all starts at 12 a.m. on the actual night of their birthday, not on the party night). Then all her friends and family came out and cracked raw eggs on her and dumped bags of flour on her. Most of her friends ran about half a mile away to try to avoid getting hugged by the egg and flour monster that was Pilar, but she hugged each of her family members (the dog too!) and any friends who she could catch or were brave enough to breach the stench of the eggs. It was quite a tradition to watch.

Anyway... we watched the video that they had taken of the egg/flour event of the birthday and then we danced even more. And throughout the whole event they keeping bringing out things like popcorn, then candy, then glow sticks and crazy hats, and then at about 5 in the morning they brought out something that appeared to me as tacos! (My ideas of the world were very confused, people eating tacos at 5 in the morning and dancing while doing so..¿?) My group left around quarter to 6 in the morning, but the party would actually end at 6 in the morning. I was informed afterwards that sometimes at these parties they even serve breakfast after the dancing ends! It is like living during the night and sleeping during the day! So if you happen to turn 15 in Argentina, this is just a little bit of what to expect, for the girls it is apparently an event they dream of for years. It was quite an experience.