The president of Argentina adopted a 13-year-old boy as her godson in order to stop him from becoming a werewolf (and maybe getting killed by a silver bullet). Sounds crazy, but it’s real.
According to Argentinian folklore, the seventh son born into a family turns into werewolf after age 13, and will go around terrorizing and killing people to satisfy their animal instincts. As such, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was left with no other option but to bring the jewish boy into her circle of protection.
Reports the Washington Post:
A tradition holds that the seventh son of a family is doomed to turn into a werewolf — known as “el lobison” in Argentina — after his 13th birthday and will stalk the night in its beastly form, feeding on the dead and murdering all before it. The legend stems from indigenous folklore and melded with superstitions of European settlers in the 19th century. The fear of this werewolf-child was so pronounced that many seventh sons were killed after they were born, which started the practice in 1907 of Argentine leaders taking these children symbolically under their wing.
In the past half-century, the ceremonies have been opened up to girls and now, for the first time, Jews. The Tawil family appealed to the Argentine government as early as the 1990s to have the practice extended to non-Catholic families. The boy’s new status as the president’s godson wins him a gold medal as well as a full educational scholarship, according to the Independent.
The president tweeted a photo from the “magical” adoption ceremony on Dec. 23.
As silly as it seems, the werewolf belief is so staunch in Argentina, that before presidents started the adoption ritual, families had been known to abandon, and in some cases even kill, the seventh child.
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Photo: Twitter
