People Actually Believed Argentina’s President Adopted A Jewish Boy To Stop His Change Into A Werewolf

The story went like this: a young Argentinian man named Yair Tawil just turned 13 years old and was adopted by the country’s president, Cristina Fernandez de Kirchhner. Why did she do it? It’s simple really. Due to Argentinian folklore, the president was required to adopt the boy in order to prevent him from turning into a werewolf. At least that’s what people believed. From New York Daily News:

According to tradition in the country, the seventh son born to a family turns into a werewolf, a feared “el lobison”.

The creature only shows its true nature on the first Friday after the boy’s 13th birthday, turning the teenager into a demon at midnight during every full moon.

A demon at midnight? Do tell…

As well as feeding on excrement, unbaptized babies, and the flesh of the recently dead, the lobison was said to be unnaturally strong and able to spread its curse with a bite.

Fear of the lobison was so rife in 19th Century Argentina that some families abandoned or even murdered baby boys – an atrocity that sparked the unusual Presidential practice of adoption, aimed at stopping the deadly stigma. (Via)

The problem here is that all of it is bullsh*t. According to The Guardian, it is a nice mixture of folklore and truth that fooled plenty of people and may have had them running for the silver:

Like all good urban myths, the articles were based on a grain of truth: by tradition, the seventh son (or daughter) born to an Argentine family is eligible to become the godson (or daughter) of the president. Until this month, the honour had only been bestowed on Christian babies, but on Wednesday, Iair Tawil – not a baby, but the strapping 21-year old son of a rabbi – became the country’s first Jewish presidential godson…

[Somehow], the story became entangled with the ancient legend of the lobizón (Argentina’s equivalent to the European werewolf). According to some versions of the myth, the seventh son of the seventh son is particularly prone to fall victim to the curse.

That makes the entire thing infinitely less appealing. I’m disappointed now, and not just because I was ready to go get The Monster Squad together to test out my “nards” theory. Stupid facts, ruining a good story yet again. I bet science will be coming along shortly, via UBER no doubt, to add in an annoying truth to make werewolves even less cool. F*cking science.

(Via: New York Daily News / The Independent The Guardian)

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