Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Hump Day

So what does the term "hump day" mean? I had never hard of it before I joined the Mommy Boards. We don't have an equivalent expression in Spanish, at least not where I come from. We have the term "viernes social", or social Friday, not to be confused with casual Friday.

Social Friday is the day when Puerto Ricans celebrate the end of the work week (or the school week), by going out (to Happy Hour, clubs, or wherever people can go to party). They go through the week thinking of casual Friday. No hump day for us, Wednesday is "two more days until Friday" day. People dress nicely to work on viernes social, so they can go out right after the day is over, with friends and coworkers.

I guess you can tell a lot about a society's mindset by their expressions. Puerto Ricans seem to have always had the yearn to party. In Spanish colonial times, specifically from 1822-1837, the governor of the island was Lt. General Miguel de la Torre. His governing philosophy was described as "las tres B" (the three B's): baile (dancing), botella (bottle-of alcohol of course) and baraja (card games). In essence, this despot (for that is what he was) believed that when people are having fun they don't think about rebellions.

1 comment:

  1. Long ago in another place in life, Friday night was indeed a time to look forward too - we'd count down the work hours until we could all head out together and party until we were horizontal. I was a lot younger then, but I still wish for times like that now and then.

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