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31/10/2008Smurfs celebrate their 50th Smurfday

Half a century ago, some tiny blue creatures with improbable names popped out of the pages of a Belgian magazine

And began an adventure that would see them grow-up to become some of the world's favourite comic-strip characters. Or to put in their own words: "Long, long ago, in a Smurf far away, there Smurfed, in complete Smurfiness with Smurf, a small blue people."
 
Smurfs
Over the decades, these Belgian elves who began life as "les Schtroumpfs", have sold tens of millions of books and starred in a hugely popular cartoon series in the 1980s. Yet despite their cult status, the Smurfs are unlikely to be taking much notice of their Smurfday. To start with, they are ‘timeless' creatures - they are 100 years old expect for Grandpa Smurf who is 500 - and they have other things to worry about, 
such as how to defend their mushroom-made village against evil outsiders.
 
War in Smurfland
As Belgians reflect on these miniature national heroes - "just three apples high" - they will turn to a more troubling chapter in Smurf history as a disturbing reflection on the political crisis engulfing the country today. In Schtroumpf vert et vert Schtroumpf, published in 1972, a language dispute erupts, splitting the village into North and South.

Smurf
"The Smurfs could not agree on when to use the word "smurf". So the Northern Smurfs would call an opener a "bottle smurfer", while the Southern Smurfs called it a "smurf opener,"
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