Friday is Heritage Day, an annual public holiday held on 24 September to celebrate our country’s diverse cultures and traditions.
The first Heritage Day was celebrated in 1995.
In the early 2000s, National Braai Day started gaining momentum as a way of celebrating South Africa’s culinary tradition of gathering around a fire to cook.
This public holiday also falls at a time of the year when many people like to do outdoor activities after being kept indoors by the winter cold.
According to Wikipedia, Archbishop Desmond Tutu celebrated his appointment as patron of South Africa’s Braai Day on 5 September 2007.
He even affirmed it to be a unifying force in a divided country by donning an apron and enthusiastically eating a piece of boerewors. In 2008, the initiative was endorsed by South Africa’s National Heritage Council.
There is even a National Braai Day song.
Be sure to take a break from all the stresses bothering everyone, this Braai Day, even if you only put a piece of boerewors on the fire. Luckily, Covid-19 protocols cannot dampen your spirit, because you can even do it alone or in the open air while keeping a safe distance from others.
