VATICAN CITY: Thousands of people sang “Happy Birthday” and danced a mass tango yesterday to celebrate the birthday of the first Latin American pope.
Argentinian Pope Francis was born in the birthplace of the tango on December 17, 1936. Yesterday, he heard versions of “Happy Birthday” in Spanish, Italian and other languages as he was driven through St. Peter’s Square to start his weekly general audience.
Argentine priests handed him a cake and he blew out the candles before his open-top jeep moved on. The vehicle stopped again so the pope, visibly pleased, could accept a birthday drawing from an Italian boy. At the rear edge of the square, more than 2,000 people who came to Rome from all over Italy for the birthday danced in “A tango for Pope Francis” event as music blared.
Reuters
