Why is Canillita Day observed today on November 7?

Today, Sunday, November 7, Argentina celebrates National Canillita Day in honour of newspaper and magazine vendors, as it does every year. Discover the significance of this 1940s-era festival and its beginnings.

People started celebrating Canillita Day in 1947 to honour Florencio Sánchez, a journalist and writer who directed the play Canillita, in which he portrayed the lads who peddled newspapers on the street.

Sánchez, who passed away on November 7, 1910, nicknamed them that because of their skinny legs, and they were known as such ever since. The theatrical act was a huge hit and was very well received by the newspapermen.

Since the Día del Canillita was created in 1947, 37 years after Sánchez’s death, every November 7 newspaper deliverers have taken free on this day, which is why the nation has no paper-based newspapers.

This 2021 will not be an exception, thus there will be no paper edition newspapers honouring the canillitas in their day on Sunday in Argentina.