Grandparents’ Day 2021: when is it celebrated and all you need to know

August 28 in Mexico a special occasion is celebrated. Grandmothers and Grandfathers are celebrated and honored for honoring all they mean to their families: wisdom, experience, affection, affection, and the occasional advice.

Snow-white hair, skin that denotes the passage of time in the form of wrinkles, a caring voice for loved ones, and endless stories to tell so that the youngest can know and understand why today. With these characteristics, it is possible to clearly define what a grandfather or grandmother in Mexican familiess.

It was in 1982 when it was internationally decreed that August would be considered the month of old age, the 28th being the day chosen by Mexican authorities to celebrate the country’s grandmothers and grandfathers.

In the country there have been significant changes in the name. According to information from the National Institute for the Elderly (INAPAM), the first name was “Day of the Elderly”. Subsequently, it was changed to “National Elderly Day”. Currently, to include all people, it is called “National Day of the Elderly”.

Notably in other parts of the world, it is not celebrated on August 28, but on July 26. This mismatch between dates can confuse people, so it is necessary to know a little more about the history of this celebration to understand why the holiday is different in Mexico.

In 1998, it was established at the national level that every August 28, the elderly are celebrated throughout the national territory. The government took the initiative and decreed an exact date for a celebration that has various rumors about its debut.

According to the portal Live betterIt was in 1957 at the first Pan American Congress of Gerontology that it was proposed that in Latin America grandparents and grandmothers be celebrated on August 28 in the years to come.

Agree with The Yucatan newspaperThere are other origins: the first is that the government of Porfirio Díaz chose it to be celebrated in conjunction with the feast of San Agustín de Hipona; Another version is that the radio host Edgar Gaytán in his show “La hora azul” instituted August 28 to dedicate it to the elderly.

INAPAM mentions that the importance of this day lies in being “a space, not only to congratulate the elderly for being old, but to give them recognition for their current and potential contributions to cultural, social, economic and political development. of our society and their communities, as well as to promote the struggle for the recognition and the full exercise of their rights ”.

The agency in charge of the care and protection of the rights of the elderly, mentions that “a stereotypical view of old age has led to stigmatization and discrimination against the elderly”. He mentions that sometimes older people are seen “as a problem, as a heavy financial burden on the health and pension systems; old age has become synonymous with vulnerability, disease and dependence ”.

The institute mentions that not all older people are in a vulnerable situation and that some people are stigmatized for having diabetes or hypertension even though they did not contract these diseases during old age, so it must avoid the exclusion of this sector of the population.

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