HAPPY FATHERS DAY - FELIZ DIA DOS PAIS

First of all I would like to take this opportunity to wish all of our expat-blog members a VERY HAPPY FATHERS DAY. Perhaps some of you are separated from your children by a great distance, so today will probably be a difficult one. I know what it feels like because I have four sons and daughters, all adults now, back in Canada. Being separated from them has been difficult at times, even after many years of being divorced from their mother, because it was I who essentially raised them during their early childhood.

Second of all I want to thank my five year old Brazilian born son Matheus for making every day Fathers Day for me. Son, I love you more than life itself. You are the only Fathers Day present I could ever want. I never dreamed that at my age I would be a father again, much less that I would ever be so happy, so loved or so involved again after all these years. (Filho, você é o meu coração andando fora do meu corpo!)

After over ten years here in Brazil I always found it a bit difficult to adapt to the different date to celebrate Fathers Day. I also found it a bit strange since here in Brazil Mothers Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May, same day as in North America. However, I never really gave it much thought until this year. For some reason I began to wonder just how many other expat dads were in the same situation. I was surprised to find out that only two countries worldwide celebrate today as Fathers Day - Brazil and Samoa. More surprising was that many other countries celebrate the day on different dates than I was used to. (see the Wikipedia link for dates)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father's_Day

My curiosity now piqued I check out Wikipedia for Mothers Day too. Lo and behold it isn't celebrated on a universal date either. (See link)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother's_Day

So after many years here I've learned a valuable lesson. Don't just assume, because we have parts of our culture, traditions and celebrations in common, that we necessarily observe them in the same way or at the same time. Our differences are what make us unique and it is this uniqueness that makes life enjoyable. So don't fall into the trap... "well, at home this isn't how we do it", don't complain about the differences here in Brazil - celebrate them. After all, at this moment "home" is here in Brazil.

Cheers,
William James Woodward - Brazil Animator, Expat-blog