I think children’s birthdays in Argentina are both extensive, perhaps a little hysterical and quite absurd. They are as far away from thrifty Norwegian sausage parties as you can get. Not that 90s sausage parties around a pine table are optimal, or particularly healthy, but I like that it was simple. There was free play, chocolate cake in a long pan and hidden goody bags outside. Dance buses for children The Argentinian children’s birthday parties are so much more than that. Once I was at a third birthday party, which started right after closing time at the kindergarten. Outside the gate stood a bus dressed as a train with open windows. The three-year-olds were each given a goody bag when they boarded before being placed in seats without particularly secure belts. A unicorn and a clown provided the entertainment on the birthday bus for this third anniversary. Photo: Hilda Nyfløt Driving up and down a six-lane avenue in Buenos Aires, the children were encouraged to dance in the aisle with hired clowns in unicorn costumes. The music was loud, the bass humming, the clowns going up and down, and parents and children were smiling for an hour and a half. The party train called “mega train” runs through the city’s streets with little birthday celebrants. Photo: Hilda Nyfløt Then everyone got food and cakes on the playground. The little guests received a bag of drawing materials as a thank you for the party on the way home. Not home-made cakes Other birthdays make do with a hired bouncy castle and a small ball pit. Chairs and tables can be rented in miniature. For those who live in or have access to a house with a garden, it is common to hire a bouncy castle or a ball pit on the occasion of a child’s birthday. Photo: Hilda Nyfløt Homemade cakes are rare, they should ideally be perfect, large cakes, filled with dulce de leche, a kind of sacred hapå spread for Argentines, cream and merengue. The cake should be beautifully decorated with hero figures and be a feast to behold. Homemade cakes are not common in children’s birthdays in Buenos Aires, and these cakes are made by professionals. Photo: Hilda Nyfløt Necessary to hire a clown For the children to be entertained. The few hours a child’s birthday lasts must be packed with a program. And what parent has the money to entertain 25 three-year-olds for two or three hours in addition to organizing the party? It is best to hire the specialists. Ideally, one clown should appear. Least. The principle is the same in the public kindergarten, which is otherwise completely free. There, the children come to a newly decorated fantasy room almost every day. The activities are many and constantly change during the three hours that many kindergartens last. It is impressive to see how many worlds the nursery staff manage to come up with. Each department in the nursery has its own room, which is often imaginatively decorated when the children arrive in the morning. The children are very satisfied with the kindergarten teachers’ efforts. Photo: Hilda Nyfløt Risk of cold in the park When my son turned three at the end of May, in late autumn in Argentina, I imagined picnic blankets, balloons and cakes in the park. Something simple. We sent out invitations to family, friends and the children in the nursery and received many positive responses. But as the date approached, several in the Argentine side of the family erupted in apparent panic. This birthday Sunday could potentially be the coldest May day in the city in decades. Back in 2007, a blizzard brought some snow and minus eight degrees for a short period in Buenos Aires, the coldest temperature measured in over 30 years. Such weather events are rare. Photo: JUAN MABROMATA / AFP It never snows in Buenos Aires, but “POSSIBLE SNOW!”, the newspapers wrote in block letters as I remember it. The thermometer could creep down to a mere four plus degrees. Were we really going to risk disappointing the birthday child at the park if no one showed up because of the cold? Rain equals delays Argentines prefer to stay inside when it’s cold and raining. It was actually one of the first things the kindergarten teacher said to us: It is perfectly fine to keep the child at home on cold winter days. From before, I had experience with university studies and the lecturers who arrived at least 40 minutes late during heavy downpours. 75 percent of the students were absent. In addition to delays in public transport, it can be difficult to get out of bed in the rain, it is said. No one is surprised if the children do not come to kindergarten on days of heavy rainfall. Here, a man braves the water after heavy rainfall on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Avellaneda, in March this year. Photo: Mariana Nedelcu / Reuters Dengue fever outbreak In terms of children’s birthdays, it should be added that this Sunday there was a large dengue outbreak in the city. The park was full of black mosquitoes with white dots, the stories of children and the elderly in hospital many. The mosquito that carries the infection, Aedes aegypti, has white spots on its body. Due to climate change and higher temperatures, there was a dengue fever outbreak in Buenos Aires this summer and fall. Photo: Luis ROBAYO / AFP The shops had been close to selling out of mosquito spray all summer. Four degrees wasn’t going to break these steadfast insects any time soon. We had to go for a plan B. Expensive affair We started looking for alternatives. It was not appropriate to invite the three-year-olds, their respective prams, and the parents into our apartment. There is no room. However, there are hundreds of venues and clubs in Buenos Aires that offer rentals for just this. Two hours in a private club with a ball pit, decorations, staff, food and cakes for NOK 7,000? No, thank you. The prices were shocking. After all, the average salary in the country per month is around NOK 6,000, according to the government. Although there were far cheaper premises, a lot of energy and pesos are generally spent on children’s birthday parties. But we continued the hunt with good courage. The cold was coming. A good Norwegian friend brought buns in a long pan for her birthday. It was appreciated. But there is no tradition of sweets in long pans in Argentina. Photo: Hilda Nyfløt Storfelag Finally we found a small sports club with a free room and a large barbecue. Argentinians are masters of wood-grilled beef and are among the most meat-eating people in the world. Around 50 kilos are eaten a year and especially on Sundays. In comparison, Norwegians eat 13-14 kilos of beef per person annually. The point here is that we now couldn’t get away with buying beef for over 50 people. You never know how many siblings and the number of parents a kindergarten child will show up with. Inflation in Argentina was at one point this year the highest in the world. Today, 1,000 pesos is equivalent to 7 Norwegian kroner and it took two store employees to count the payment for the meat for the birthday. Photo: Hilda Nyfløt Hired dog figures Since we were now going to be inside, we also had to get entertainers in place. Hiring a clown is a minimum anyway. For those familiar with the canine universe called Paw Patrol, it seemed like a good idea to bring in a dressed-up blue Chase and a red Marshall. The puppies Chase and Marshall from Paw Patrol had been given a new mission this Sunday in May: To entertain three-year-olds on their birthday. Photo: Hilda Nyfløt Since they cannot talk inside the costume, a third entertainer was also included in the package. She was a little older than the others, but still in her 20s, and brought a microphone, a shrill speaker and huge cloth bags with various toys. The kids barely had time to eat between shots. There was piñata hitting, building blocks, cones, magnet fishing in tubs and jumping from paw to paw on the floor. There was play with flower pots, paw patrol banners, birthday songs, ball games, pieces of cloth and dancing. The entertainers brought a variety of toys, such as these fishing poles with magnets for fishing pieces of cloth. Photo: Hilda Nyfløt All-Argentinian birthday We suddenly ended up arranging an extensive, a slightly convulsive and quite absurd birthday for our son. It was certainly a cultural journey of sorts in Argentinian children’s birthdays. Only a small Norwegian flag and a somewhat unsuccessful long pancake reminded me of what I myself remember from my own childhood. But then we were on the other side of the world. The children, parents and family were happy anyway, and that is the most important thing. Fortunately, the next time is a long year away. Published 17.08.2024, at 12.54
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