In news you probably never expected to hear, the president of Argentina has adopted a child in order to prevent him from transforming into a werewolf.
Yes, this is real, and it's a bit of an annual tradition in Argentina. It all goes back to Argentinian folklore that claims the seventh son born to a family will transform into "el lobison", a.k.a. a werewolf, on the first Friday after the boy's 13th birthday. The stories say he will then transform into the werewolf at midnight whenever a full moon is in the sky, destined to hunt and kill defenseless men and women before returning to human form. You know, as werewolves do.
Fear of the creature caused some families to begin the practice of abandoning or killing baby boys in the 19th century. Obviously the killing of children over a folktale isn't a desired outcome, so starting in 1907 the president of Argentina began the practice of "adopting" the seventh child of a family in an effort to combat the stigma. If the president adopts them, they can't be that bad, right? That's the logic at least. The tradition was formally established by an official decree in 1973, which also allowed seventh daughters to be adopted.
This all leads us to today, when President Christina Fernández de Kirchner adopted seventh son Yair Tawil, the first Jewish boy to ever be adopted. The practice only applied to Catholic children until 2009.
Mágico fue recibir a Iair Tawil, 1er ahijado presidencial de nuestra historia que profesa la fe judía. pic.twitter.com/18eNPR5kXv
— Cristina Kirchner (@CFKArgentina) December 23, 2014
Seventh children are much less common today than 100 years ago, but if a seventh child is lucky enough to be selected by the president for adoption, there are a number of perks, like 1.) a gold medal 2.) a full educational scholarship and 3.) being able to call the president of the country your godparent. Not bad.
Too bad all the kids who don't get selected by the president probably react like this:
