Carnival in Argentina

After 35 years, carnival as a holiday is back in Argentina!  In 1976, carnival as a holiday was removed during the military dictatorships.  Durning those 34 years, carnival continued, but is was not a holiday with non-working days so it lost a lot of the traditions that is used to carry before the dictatorship.  Even after the dictatorship ended carnival started to be celebrated more, but was not implemented as a holiday so is was still largely lost in smaller towns.  Buenos Aires and some other cities did not lose the traditions of carnival, but the non-holiday stopped carnival from being “immortal.”  Generations during that time lost out on the profound experiences of the holiday and many citizens would travel to other countries, like Brazil and Chile to celebrate.  In November 2010, President Christina Kirchner brought back carnival as a holiday and was celebrated as a holiday for the first time in March of 2011.  The long weekend of celebration returned with Monday and Tuesday being a national carnival holiday.  Since people had the days off of work, many traveled to other parts of Argentina.  Hotel capacity went up by 80 percent over the long weekend by travelers from Argentina.  This is a great opportunity from Argentines to bring back their old traditions and celebrate carnival all over the country.