MONTEVIDEO, Aug. 24 (Xinhua) -- Each year, on the eve of Independence Day celebrations on Aug. 25, Uruguayans dance the night away to golden oldies in what has become known as Nostalgia Night.
"Remembering is nice, but it's even better to music" is the slogan of the annual bash that was declared a national holiday in 2004.
The celebration originated in 1978, when radio disk jockey Pablo Lecueder, then 21 years old, decided to organize a dance at the Ton Ton disco near the capital Montevideo, and chose the night of Aug. 24, since the following day was a day off.
Lecueder could not have imagined that the party would grow into a national tradition that sees Uruguayans of all ages gather at homes, restaurants and hotels for an evening of dance to the tunes of yesteryear.
While in 1978, he played hits from the 50s and 60s, today's dance nights feature music from the 1970s, 80s, 90s and even the early 2000s.
"Nostalgia Night is for the music each person remembers from his or her heyday," Lecueder says, noting every generation, children, parents, grandparents, will have their own favorite playlists.
"My daughter will get together with her friends and play music from her 15th birthday, which was 10 years ago. For her, that's nostalgia," Lecueder, now director at FM radio station Oceano, recently told the daily El Pais.
In its early years, Nostalgia Night was filled with songs by Elvis Presley, Queen, Simon and Garfunkel, Cat Stevens and the Bee Gees. Today, the range of singers and bands has grown, and so has the genre of music, from pop to rock, folk and tropical rhythms like salsa.
The celebration is so widespread that transit police launch special operations in towns across the country to ensure revelers don't drink and drive, just dance.
