Argentina's presidents have been following an unusual custom for decades. It seems that every year the current presidente adopts a child in order to prevent them from becoming a werewolf.
The specific lycanthrope type is the lobison or luison:
According to Argentinian folklore, the seventh son born to a family turns into the feared “el lobison”.
The werewolf-like creature shows its true nature on the first Friday after boy’s 13th birthday, the legend says, turning the boy into a demon at midnight during every full moon, doomed to hunt and kill before returning to human form.
As well as feeding on excrement, unbaptized babies, and the flesh of the recently dead, the lobison was said to be unnaturally strong and able to spread its curse with a bite.
Enter the country's president:
Fear of the lobison was so rife in 19th Century Argentina that some families abandoned or even murdered baby boys – an atrocity that sparked the unusual Presidential practice of adoption, aimed at stopping the deadly stigma.
How many other national leaders perform a similar ritual? The American president's Thanksgiving turkey pardon really shouldn't count... unless it's an unusual bird.
A nice lobison post is here.
(thanks to Steven Kaye for the link, and Dan Century for the photo)
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