World Cup unites South Africa for a joyful, hours-long party

“At exactly 12 o’clock for five minutes, stop what you are doing, get out your vuvuzela and blow on it like never before. If you are in the car, hoot. And let the sound be heard from Cape to Mpumalanga and from Natal to Limpopo.” — one of many calls on the Internet for South Africans to blow their horns Wednesday

It began as a vuvuzela “moment”: five minutes, to be precise, when South Africans would walk outside and blast their vuvuzelas, plastic trumpets blown at sporting events that are either obnoxious or exhilarating, depending on your point of view.

It morphed into a spontaneous national party, the patriotism and unity of which seemed to surprise even South Africans. A sea of people clad in the yellow and green national soccer colors or draped in flags surged into the streets across the country and made a gigantic noise.

The country came to a standstill. And it lasted not minutes, but hours.

People compared Wednesday’s celebration to some of the great moments of South African history: the day Nelson Mandela was released from prison; the time the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup (portrayed recently in the movie “Invictus”).

But some people said they’d simply never seen anything like it. And more than a few admitted they were supposed to be at work.

“It changes the way you see South Africa when you see so many people happy, enjoying themselves, because there are so many bad things that happen here,” said medical student Greg Skinner, 26, wearing a curly wig in the colors of South Africa’s flag.

To underscore just how big the moment was, the word vuvuzela became one of Twitter’s trending topics Wednesday. For those who couldn’t be at the party, the Twittersphere lighted up:

One tweet from Shahil Juggernath, who calls himself an electronic engineer guy, summed up the joy: “I love life. I love this week. I love South Africa. I love the #vuvuzela. I love the #SWC [Soccer World Cup]. I love the love.”

“The sound of the vuvuzela is the only thing that can be heard from space,” proclaimed another much-followed South African tweeter, Khaya Dlanga.

The street party ignited a spontaneous warmth and camaraderie. Strangers greeted one another with “Feel it,” adapted from the World Cup slogan of a national television station. (“Feel it. It is here.”)

Until recently, the national soccer team, Bafana Bafana (Zulu for “boys boys”), has attracted pity, scorn or lukewarm support for its uninspired performances. With soccer a game embraced mainly by blacks, it was rare to see white South Africans getting excited about the team.

But Wednesday thousands of yellow-clad South Africans of all races flocked to the upscale shopping and hotel district of Sandton, just for a chance to glimpse Bafana Bafana parading in an open-topped double-decker bus with the team’s Brazilian coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira — who recently called the vuvuzela his team’s “12th man.”

After a 12-match unbeaten streak, South Africans are “holding thumbs” for the team (a local expression equivalent to having one’s fingers crossed).

Skinner, the medical student, and two friends wrapped like mummies in flags joined the throng in Sandton but didn’t see Bafana Bafana. It didn’t damp their enthusiasm. They danced with Brazilian fans playing drums and with construction workers who’d abandoned their building site.

“Anyone who was anyone was there. We saw businessmen in their suits,” said Skinner’s flag-wrapped friend, Bianca Meurer, 27, who is also a medical student. “It was awesome. It was like we’re all united.”

There were children wearing the South African flag like Superman capes, plump grandmothers singing, “We’re going forward,” and gray-haired white men behaving like naughty boys, blasting their vuvuzelas at cars and scuttling away.

Ingrid Brits, 65, doesn’t even like soccer, but she was there, having walked 45 minutes from her office.

“People were blowing their horns and dancing. We were blowing our horns and dancing,” she said after the noise died down. “Every time we saw a bit of action, we’d go over there and dance. We were screaming and shouting and cheering and going wild.

“I have never seen anything like this before. I get emotional, actually. If I keep talking, I’ll cry.”

Her more reserved colleague, Edith Van Ross, 30, smiled quietly — in contrast to the crowds of shouting, ebullient people around her — and said simply that “it was nice.”

“I’m normally a reserved person. But it’s nice to feel the spirit — everybody coming together. It’s nice to be part of the country, to be in South Africa.”

Meurer had one word for her feelings: pride.

robyn.dixon@latimes.com