Día del Amor y la Amistad (Colombia´s Valentine´s Day)

Not everywhere in the world celebrates the infamous Feb 14th day of "love" like we do in North America. Last year in Spain I learned that April 23rd is the Spanish equivalent of Valentine´s Day, known as St. George day, and now ive learned the Colombian equvialent:

On the 3rd Saturday of September, Colombians celebrate "El Día del Amor y la Amistad" (The Day of Love and Friendship). During the month of September before the 3rd Saturday of the month, many Colombians take part in a tradition which is similar to what we do in December for Secret Santa, but is called "Amigo Secreto" (Secret Friend). Basically you get a group of friends, coworkers, or family memebrs and have each person choose a piece of paper from a hat which has another´s person´s name written on it. This is their secret friend for the month, where each day or week they will give them a small treat (normally is candy, chocolate, food or flowers) until the actual "day of love and friendship" where they are normally presented with a small gift. This whole time the person receiving these little gift, they have no idea who is sending them, and on the day of "amor y amistad" they have to try and guess who their "secret friend" is.

So this a tradition that Ive seen observed between my group of friends here (which ive taken part in), as well at my workplace. I almost like it better than Valentine´s Day in North America, because it focuses more on the "Friendship" aspect, than the "Love" aspect. It´s all about appreciating who you have in your life, and is way less of a Halmark holiday than in North America. :)