In late February we had the chance to connect with our friends in Colombia again, this time to compare Valentine’s Day traditions and celebrations. We were surprised to learn that in Colombia they don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day on February 14th like we do; instead they celebrate Love and Friendship month in September.
Here are some of the things we learned about love and friendship month:
1. It is a time when friends and people that are in love spend time together.
2. They give each other chocolate and cards.
3. They play “Secret Friend” like we play “Secret Santa”. The put everyone’s name on a paper and then put the papers in a hat or bag. The name you pull out of the bag is the name of your secret friend. You have to keep your friend’s name a secret. Secret friends give each other presents like chocolate and cards. Sometimes they give each other funny joke gifts.
4. Love and Friendship month is one of their favourite months of the year.
Sports Day
We also learned that our friends do have a special tradition on Valentine’s Day in Colombia. Our friends have a Sports Day. They made a video to show us their sports day. As soon as we started watching it we thought it was really similar to our Play Day at the end of the school year. Like us they play different games, sports, and water games. One thing they had that we don’t have at our play day is a slip ‘n’ slide. We want to go to Colombia. It’s like summer there all the time!
Sports Day 2 from pilon7 on Vimeo
After we watched the video we talked about our favourite music artists. We liked that they used a Katy Perry song in their video. Some of us were singing along. 🙂 Here are some videos of us talking about our favourite artists:
Leigh Cassell Consulting 
Hi Canada!! This is Mr. Pilon writing from Colombia on behalf of my whole class. We had a great time chatting with you guys recently. Those snowshoes you showed us were so cool! We want to come visit so we can have snowball fights and play in the snow with you. We are glad you also liked our Sports Day video.
Stay warm and talk soon!
– 3A, Colegio Granadino, Manizales Colombia
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Dear Mr. Pilon and friends,
We had so much fun too! We love learning about your sports day and the way you celebrate different holidays throughout the year. We also think it’s super cool that you listen to the same music as us. We can’t wait until we get to see you again!
Your friends,
Mrs. Cassell and the Busy Bees
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