Thousands of tango dancers will celebrate Pope Francis’s 78th birthday today with a flash mob. The organisers have promoted the event on social media as “the largest milonga in the world” – a milonga being a more informal, relaxed version of the tango. Some 7,000 dancers are expected to take part. “We have gotten all of the permits and we will dance a milonga with the official permission of the city of Rome and the Vatican gendarmerie!” said Cristina Camaroni, who is organising the flash mob. The event is planned for 4pm. The flash mob dance, which is expected to last two hours, will take place in Risorgimento Square in Rome, near to St Peter’s. About 3,000 of the dancers, wearing white handkerchiefs around their necks, are expected to take part that morning in the Pope's general audience in St Peter's Square. Pope Francis is known to enjoy the tango, which originated in the late 19th century on the Uruguayan border of his native Argentina. “I like Tango very much. It's something that comes from inside of me. My favorite singers are Carlos Gardel, Julio Sosa and Ada Falcon, who later became a nun,” he said as Cardinal Bergoglio in the 2010 book-interview The Jesuit by Francesca Ambrogetti and Sergio Rubin.