2023-12-23 10:05:00
(CNN Spanish) — Las country lists that do not recognize the celebration of Christmas—or even prohibit it—are usually dominated by 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 festival of the birth of Jesus from the official calendar and replaced it with one that today, curiously, may be more representative for millions around the world. the world: Family Day.
Since 1919, Uruguayan law It does not recognize the Christmas holiday nor does it recognize Three Kings’ Day, Holy Week or Virgin’s Day. These dates are still celebrated, and in a big way, but in the official calendar they have other names: Christmas is Family Day, Three Kings’ Day is Children’s Day, Easter is Tourism Week and of the Virgin is the Day of the Beaches.
The secularization of religious holidays is just one of the many actions that the country carried out 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 that marked this process of secularization of the country occurred as early as 1861, just about 30 years after the country approved its first Constitution. That year the cemeteries, which were under the control of the Church, came under the orbit 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 increasingly lost real and symbolic power.
In 1885, for example, civil marriage became mandatory before religious marriage. And a few years later, in 1907, the Divorce Law was approved and references to God and the gospels in the oath of parliamentarians 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 suppressed. José Pedro Varela, the promoter of secular, free and compulsory education in the country, summarized in these words the spirit that guided the decisions of the politicians of the time: “Let us not profess any cult, but let us have the religion of the future, with the gaze fixed on the star of justice, may it enlighten us; Let us march incessantly preparing the establishment of democracy, in which the people who have become priests and kings will have freedom as their guide and God.”
The process, however, was not uniform. The first decisions, according to academics such as Roger Gaymonat, were not necessarily intended to make the country secular. However, starting in 1885 an “anticlerical storm” did break out and from the first 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.
Do Uruguayans believe?
A 2014 Pew Research Center study that continues to be used as a reference in academic studies placed Uruguay at the top of Latin American countries with the most people without religious affiliation: 37% in total, divided between those who do not have a particular religion (24 %), atheists (10%) and those who define themselves as agnostics (3%).
Pew describes Uruguay as an “atypical” case. “In no other Latin American country surveyed do people without religious affiliation even reach 20%” of the population,” he says. To put it in 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 barely 1% falls into these categories.
Regarding the religious affiliation of those who do declare themselves part of a religion, the Pew study registers 42% Catholics, 15% Protestants and 6% belonging to “other” religions.
For Christmas lovers, a peace of mind: yes, the trees are decorated and sweet bread is eaten
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 many of the world, Christmas trees and colored lights multiply, although they are not usually present in public spaces. accompanied by nativity scenes as in other countries more identified with Catholicism.
It is a date of celebration between family and friends, mostly, and in which practicing Christians also attend the celebrations in churches.
Looking back 103 years later, replacing Christmas with Family Day (if only on calendars) may be more true to the spirit of the holiday today than those who decided to do it could have imagined. so.
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