Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities

Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities

The Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities celebrates the date of June 10, 1580, the date of Camões' death, and this is also the day dedicated to the Angel Custodio of Portugal. This is also the day of the Portuguese language, citizens and the Armed Forces.

During the Estado Novo, from 1933 until the Carnation Revolution of April 25, 1974, it was celebrated as Race Day: the Portuguese race or the Portuguese race.
Origins

The first reference to the festive nature of the 10th of June is in the year 1880 by a royal decree of D Luís. I that declares "Day of National Feast and Grand Gala" to celebrate just that year the 300th anniversary of the hypothetical date of the death of Luís de Camões, June 10, 1580.

Following the legislative work after the Proclamation of the Portuguese Republic of 5 October 1910, a decree was published on 12 October stipulating national holidays. Some holidays were eliminated, particularly religious ones, in order to diminish the social influence of the Catholic Church and secularize the State.

In this decree, the holidays of January 1st, Universal Fraternity Day; 31 January, which evoked the failed revolution in Porto, and therefore was dedicated to the martyrs of the Republic; October 5th, Republic Day of Heroes; 1 December, Autonomy Day (Restoration of Independence) and Flag Day; and December 25th, which came to be considered Family Day, secularizing the religious feast of Christmas.

The decree of the 12th of June also allowed the municipalities to choose a day of the year that represented their traditional and municipal festivities.

On August 29, 1919, through Decree 17 171, June 10th became a national holiday.

With the entry into force of the Constitution of 1933, all these laws became void.


Camões, Portugal and Race Day and Portuguese Communities Day

The 10th of June began to be particularly exalted with the Estado Novo, the regime established in Portugal in 1933 under the direction of António de Oliveira Salazar. The generalization of these commemorations was largely due to media coverage.

Until the 25th of April 1974, the 10th of June was known as the Day of Camões, Portugal and the Race, the last epithet created by Salazar at the inauguration of the Estádio Nacional do Jamor in 1944. From 1963 onwards, the 10th of June became a tribute to the Portuguese Armed Forces, an exaltation of war and colonial power. With a different philosophy, the Third Republic made it the Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities in 1978. Since 2013, the autonomous community of Spanish Extremadura has also celebrated this day.
Day of the Guardian Angel of Portugal

At the request of King Manuel I of Portugal, Pope Julius II instituted in 1504 the feast of the «Anjo Custódio do Reino» whose cult would already be ancient in Portugal. The request was made to Pope Leo X and he authorized it to be carried out on the third Sunday of July. His devotion almost disappeared after the 20th century. XVII, but it would be restored later, in 1952, when ordered to be inserted in the Portuguese Liturgical Calendar by Pope Pius XII, to commemorate the Day of Portugal on the 10th of June.

It appeared for the first time in the Battle of Ourique, and its devotion gave such a victory to the forces of D. Afonso Henriques over the Muslim invaders that it gave him the opportunity to proclaim himself king of Portugal.

In her Memoirs, Sister Lúcia also recounted that, between April and October 1916, in the apparitions of Fátima, an angel had already appeared to the three little shepherds, three times, twice in Loca do Cabeço, in the place of Valinhos, and once with to the well in the backyard of his house, called the Poço do Arneiro, in the place of Aljustrel, in Fátima, inviting them to prayer and penance, and claiming to be the "Angel of Peace, the Angel of Portugal".

The commemorations of the Day of Portugal, Camões and also of the Portuguese Communities are celebrated throughout the country, but only the Official Commemorations are presided over by the President of the Republic and many other great individuals such as the President of the Assembly of the Republic, the Prime Minister, Ministers, Ambassadors and other personalities. The commemorations involve various military ceremonies, exhibitions, concerts, processions and parades, in addition to a decoration ceremony carried out by the President of the Republic.

Since 1977 dozens of cities have hosted the celebrations, eight of which are not district capitals. Every year, the President of the Portuguese Republic elects a city to host the official celebrations. In 2016, the official celebrations took place for the first time in two cities at the same time: Lisbon and Paris, in what was the first election of the host city by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa as President of the Republic. It was also the first time that the official celebrations took place in a city outside the country. In 2017 in Brazil, in the United States in 2018 and in Cape Verde in 2019. In 2020, due to the covid-19 pandemic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa canceled the celebrations of the 10th of June that were planned for the Autonomous Region of Madeira and South Africa and chose for doing a small ceremony in Lisbon.

Source: Wikipedia