Tiradentes Day or The Tooth-puller’s Holiday

Last Thursday, April 21, an interesting national holiday was celebrated across Brazil. Since it relates to the dental field, I naturally felt like it should be included in the blog. So here is a short summery of what learned about Tiradentes Day. Several hundred years ago, a Brazilian man named Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier fought for the independence of Brazil from the European country of Portugal and was hanged by the Portuguese for his efforts. After Brazil eventually won its independence, the date of this brave man’s death was commemorated with a national holiday, but instead of calling the day Joaquim Jose da Silva Xavier’s Day (maybe because the name would take up the entire little calendar square for April 21), the holiday was named Tiradentes Day after the hero’s nickname. The Portuguese word tiradente literally means tooth puller for Mr. Joaquim was a dentist by trade and must have pulled many teeth in his day. Which make me wonder if dental offices in Brazil celebrate this holiday by offering free extractions… um, probably not. Everyone gets off work or school so I’m sure the dental offices don’t stay open just because of a holiday named after a famous dentist. Anyway, here at the PQQ mission school, the students were glad for a day off and spent most of it playing in a futebol (soccer) tournament with a large Brazilian church group who came out to the school to spend their holiday with us and to hold a baptism ceremony in the Amazon River using one of our boat ramps. It was a very happy Tiradentes Day with no teeth pulled or lost or any tooth related activities at all, other than eating of course, which must be a part of any good holiday celebration, teeth or no teeth.