First of all, a small disclaimer: This post got lost in the shuffle somehow as the event happened over a week ago. I thought it was interesting enough to throw up a little blip whether it’s dated material or not.

Second of all let me explain that Tel Aviv regularly organizes events throughout the city. I’m not quite sure if these events are city funded or if residents and businesses fund it themselves.

Either way, the locals call them “happenings”. **cough** No joke.

I wandered to Rabin Square which is a large open space in the center of Tel Aviv where E told me there would be a “happening”. (I swear, it makes me giggle every time I hear that word. It makes feel like a big disco ball’s gonna drop from the ceiling at any moment.) She would meet up with me shortly after I arrived but until then, I had no idea what I was going to find.

This is what I saw when I arrived:


Rabin Square Dudu Geva


The square was crowded with people, all of which were holding yellow balloons. There were television crews everywhere and a very tiny podium where people were speaking.

Everyone was speaking in Hebrew so you can understand my confusion.

After a few speeches, everyone simultaneously released their yellow balloons:


Dudu Geva Release Balloons

And when I looked up, a Hong Kong sized yellow duck was inflating on top of the building next to the square:



Dudu Geva Duck

At this point I’ve rationalized it just being a weird organized meeting in the center of Tel Aviv for hundreds of people to release yellow balloons and worship massive inflatable yellow ducks. I suppose I could accept this reasoning. I mean, it is a foreign country to me. I’ve seen stranger customs before.

When E arrived, she could gather enough information to figure out what was happening at the “happening”.

A famous Israeli cartoonist named Dudu Geva died three years ago and this was the anniversary of his death or an anniversary of something related to him. (He died in February, 2005.)

The duck was his signature character in all his cartoons. Yellow was the color of the duck. Ah ha! It all made sense now. The speeches. The yellow balloons. The big duck.

Welcome to an Israeli happening.

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