A power outage that lasted for several hours on Saturday night was likely caused by something called a “benfica,” according to perplexed expats.
Julie Brightman, a 32-year-old who moved to Luxembourg in 2017 and resides in Bonnevoie, says she was just finishing watching a gardening program on television when her electricity went out around 1 a.m.
“I’ve got quite a few Portuguese neighbors, and they seemed very concerned,” she said. “When I looked out my window, they had flooded into the streets and they were shouting the word ‘benfica,’ which I suppose is the word for whatever caused the outage.”
“Most of them were wearing red shirts, which obviously means they’re volunteers for the Red Cross and they wanted to offer aid to anyone who needed it,” she continued. “Lots of them were wearing scarves, even though it wasn’t particularly cold outside, but that’s probably because Luxembourg has a cooler climate than Portugal.”
Gare resident Bogdan Oliynyk, who has lived in Luxembourg for less than a year, also reported hearing people shouting “benfica” when his electricity was out, although he arrived at a different conclusion.
“I’m not a genius, but it’s obvious it’s the name of the electrical company,” he said. “My neighbors kept shouting ‘benfica, benfica, best in the world,’ which leads me to believe that if you want electrical workers in Luxembourg to fix a problem in the middle of the night, you have to compliment first.”
