Paraguay is a youthful country. One filled with children. There is no corner of the land without chiuldren.

The Paraguayans are very fond of children. which is fortunate as there are few houses in the country that are without children.

The statistics speak for themselves. The population of of Paraguay is approximately 7 million. Of those 30% or about 2 million are aged 15 or under. The weighting towards youth continues into slightly older age groups. As much as 80% of the population or 5.5 million people are less than 50 years old.

This in a large part reflects improved healthcare over recent decades. This caused the population to explode as until recently there remained a culture of having large families.

Until recent times families with as many as ten children and sometimes even more were not uncommon. With families being self contained units with just a small piece of land from which to feed everybody the more hands to help the better. These children would often be helping in the fields from an early age. Missing out on or even being withdrawn from school to work.

The strength of the Catholic church and the higher infant mortality also helped drive family sizes higher.

These practices are coming to the end with the arrival of the cash economy and wages. Now far fewer families are dependant solely on the produce of their small holdings.

The average family now has a much more sustainable two children.

All of this makes the life of the children who were always treated as little treasures even better.

Now there is even in the poorest household food for all and just having to clothe and organize one of two children for school is much more manageable thing.

With all these young people around every almost every house echos to the sound of children. Children are left to run free and enjoy their childhoods. As long they don’t distract the adults from their conversations they can charge about the house and garden as they please.

As much of Paraguay lives in varying degrees of poverty children on the whole don’t have piles of toys. Instead they have their imaginations and creativity. A stick, a rock or anything else that may be lying around can with a creative mind be transferred into something.

Often the toys that are to hand are broken, second hand ones. However a car missing wheels or a doll without arms can be loved. The children are unspoiled by the need to have the newest everything.

This makes for many happy children making the best out of anything they happen to find.

There is though one flaw. As things are broken to start with they tend to be abandoned once their use or novelty has passed. The habit of not caring for possessions is acquired early and carried though life causing things to be broken and thrown away sooner than they should be.

As children are so popular in Paraguay it is unsurprising that they have their own day when everything is dedicated to them.

This is Childrens Day which fall in mid August.

Its origin is in one of the darker periods of Paraguayan history, the War of the Triple Alliance. In particular the Battle of Acosta Nu.

This occurred in August 1869 and was one of the last battles of the war. By then the Paraguayan president and the remainders of his forces fought a fighting retreat across the country ahead of the advancing Brazilians.

By the time of Acosta Nu there were hardly any fighting age men left. So in order to make up numbers large numbers of children were thrown into the fight. They were untrained and ill equipped and so unsurprisingly were mown down in great numbers by the Brazilian forces.

A sacrifice remembered to this day.

From its traumatic origins Childrens Day has now grown into a much happier occasion.

On the day of the festival schools suspend classes and become day long parties for the children.

They are filled with crowds of delighted children enjoying the party foods and the entertainment.

It is a day for singing and dancing, for laughing and playing and for clowns and music.

For the small children the arrival of the clowns is the highlight of the day and the thing they will be first to tell their parents of when they get home.

Despite the poverty and difficult situations of many of their lives Paraguay is a very good place to be a child. Out in the warm fresh air enjoying and discovering the world.