Mate, asado (barbecue) and soccer mark the daily rhythm of Uruguayans. Tourists will not be able to avoid some customs during their stay in the country.

Mate is an infusion whose consumption is inherited from the Guarani Indians. It is not only in Uruguay that mate is drunk, although it is the country that proportionally more people drink it. Also Paraguay, Argentina, the south of Brazil and in some places in Chile and Bolivia. Mate comes from the Quechua word “Mati”-calabaza- which is the container where the yerba is poured, whose scientific name is Illex paraguayensi. Yerba is stimulating due to the “mateina” component. At the same time, the high consumption of water has a purifying action, and its antioxidant action is beneficial for the organism. A bombilla is placed inside the yerba through which the infusion is sipped. The mate is the bearer of the most characteristic social symbolisms of this society, around it are woven complicities, confessions, friendship, and the sense of equals among those who share it. The anthropologist Daniel Vidart maintains that “mate is a tradition that overcomes the isolationist customs of the criollo and evens out the social classes… and through the ages, it is the mate that made the wheel of friends, and not the wheel that brought the mate”. In the world, Uruguayans are easily recognized because wherever they go, they carry a thermos with hot water under their arm and the popular mate in their hand.

In the past, in the neighborhoods, the “tablados” were set up in the streets -especially in Montevideo- once carnival arrived. It was a tradition for the neighbors to take their chairs from their houses to watch the different shows that the murgas, the parodists, the humorists or the comparsas could give. Today these neighborhood shows have been taken to large open spaces and have taken on a more professional character that is accompanied by a large audience.

The asado not only fulfills a food function but also a gregarious function. “Getting together to eat an asadito” is a proposal of reunion, of friendship, of let’s have a good time. It is very common in Uruguay that every house has a barbecue grill and even buildings are designed with common areas that include it. Meat, the basic protein source of Uruguayans and the main source of foreign currency of our country, is also a fact of high social content.

Soccer is the most popular sport in Uruguay. Two world championships and two Olympic championships of its national team, plus some continental and world achievements of its teams, made soccer live with an unusual intensity in our country. But the Uruguayan, being a public and a soccer fan, is above all a soccer player. Every child has played for children’s teams and every place, every open space is a place to “play ball”. What’s more, Uruguay is the only country in the world that has urban signage that tells vehicles to drive carefully because there may be children playing soccer in the street.

Since the separation of the state and the church, Semana Santa has acquired at least two other names: Semana de Turismo (Tourism Week) and Semana Criolla (Creole Week). The Tourism Week corresponds to a camping tradition that alternates fishing and often controlled hunting with vacations in the interior of the country, especially in the hot springs of the Uruguayan coast. This tradition attracts all ages. At the same time, the Creole week, gives the name to the activities and entertainments traditionally linked to the countryside that are taken to the city. The taming of colts is the show par excellence accompanied by folklore festivals. Beyond the many activities that take place all over the country, one of its greatest expressions is in the Montevideo neighborhood of El Prado, in the grounds of the Rural Association.

Who knows why the rain is linked to the fried cake. It is probable that, in the country tradition, the impossibility of carrying out the tasks outdoors on rainy days, led them to the kitchen and once there to the simplest thing: to mix flour, fat, warm water and salt. Knead and fry. Try it next rainy day.