Lists of countries that do not recognize the celebration of Christmas – or even prohibit it – tend to come from authoritarian regimes or nations that officially profess religions other than Catholicism. However, there is a secular country in Latin America that, more than 100 years ago, and in full democracy, eliminated the feast of the birth of Jesus from the official calendar and replaced it with another that today, curiously, may be more representative for millions around the world. world: Family Day.
Since 1919, Uruguayan law has not recognized the holiday of Christmas, nor Dia de Reis, nor Semana Santa, nor the Day of the Virgin. These dates are still celebrated, and in great style, but with other official names: Christmas is Family Day, Dia de Reis is Children’s Day, Holy Week is Tourism Week and Virgin Day is Beaches Day .
The secularization of religious holidays is just one of the many actions that the country took between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century to completely separate the State from the Catholic Church. This is a process so unique in the region that it has become a case study for academics.
From cemeteries to Christmas: how Uruguay got rid of religious symbols
The first significant milestone in this country’s secularization process took place in 1861, just 30 years after the country had approved its first Constitution. In that year, the cemeteries, which were under the control of the Church, passed to the sphere of the State. From then on, until a Constitution was approved in 1917 that formally separated the Church from the State and guaranteed freedom of worship, the Catholic institution lost more and more real and symbolic power.
In 1885, for example, civil marriage before religious marriage became mandatory. And a few years later, in 1907, the Divorce Law was passed and the references to God and the Gospels in the parliamentary oaths were suppressed. A year earlier, it had been decided to remove all crucifixes from public hospitals.
One of the most significant decisions came in 1909, when the teaching of religion in public schools was abolished. José Pedro Varela, the promoter of free and compulsory secular education in the country, summarized in these words the spirit that guided the decisions of politicians at the time: “Let us not profess any cult, but let us have the religion of the future, with our gaze fixed on the star of justice, which shines upon us; let us walk unceasingly preparing the establishment of democracy, in which the people made priest and king will have freedom and God as their guide.
The process, however, was not uniform. The first decisions, according to scholars such as Roger Gaymonat, were not necessarily intended to secularize the country. However, from 1885 an “anticlerical storm” was unleashed and since the early years of the 20th century there was already an offensive led by the president who would shape modern Uruguay: José Batlle y Ordóñez, who governed between 1903 and 1907 and 1911 and 1915 .
Are Uruguayans religious?
A Pew Research Center study from 2014 that is still used as a reference in academic studies placed Uruguay at the top of the Latin American countries with the most people without religious affiliation: 37% in total, divided between those who do not have a specific religion (24 %), atheists (10%) and those who define themselves as agnostics (3%).
Pew describes Uruguay as an “outlier”. “In no other Latin American country surveyed do people with no religious affiliation make up 20%” of the population,” she says. For context, in neighboring countries these percentages rise to 11% in the case of Argentina and 8% in the case of Brazil. At the other end of the regional list is Paraguay, where only 1% fall into these categories.
As for the religious affiliation of those who declare themselves to belong to a religion, the Pew study registers 42% of Catholics, 15% of Protestants and 6% belonging to “other” religions.
For Christmas lovers, the path is also free
The fact that Christmas has been eliminated from the law does not mean that it is not celebrated: in the streets of Uruguayan cities, as in so many in the world, Christmas trees and colored lights multiply, although in public spaces there are not usually nativity scenes like in other countries more identified with Catholicism.
Looking back 103 years later, replacing Christmas with Family Day may hit the spirit of the holiday far more today than those who decided to do so could have imagined then.
Source: CNN Brasil
Bruce Belcher is a seasoned author with over 5 years of experience in world news. He writes for online news websites and provides in-depth analysis on the world stock market. Bruce is known for his insightful perspectives and commitment to keeping the public informed.
