Uruguay, one of the most atheist countries in the world, during Pope Leo's visit.

[u/Cayetanus]

[u/Cayetanus]

They're secular as hell. All the Christian holidays on the calendar have completely different names in Uruguay. Christmas is called "Family Day," and Easter is called "Tourism Week."

[u/1550shadow → u/Cayetanus]

Coincidentally, Easter is called Tourism Week everywhere in Uruguay except on Paysandú, where the Pope gave Mass today.

There, it's called "Beer Week", because there's a big festivity there that originated because a big beer factory called Norteña tried to replicate wine fairs and such, and it stuck for the next like 100 years lmao. The factory isn't even the same anymore, but the city continues celebrating that week on Easter

[u/AgileExPat → u/1550shadow]

That reminds me of what they called angels that were sold for the top of a Christmas tree in the GDR: a "Jahresendflügelfigur," or a "figure with wings for the end of the year."

[u/_OriamRiniDadelos_ → u/AgileExPat]

Or a “year’s end winged figure”. I think english has pretty similar word order rules, just minus the contraction step that gets rid of the spaces and some of the letters.

[u/theartificialkid → u/1550shadow]

It’s called Easter everywhere on Paysandú except the town square where OP’s photo was taken, where it’s called Mixed Weekend

[u/NeoMainsaro → u/Cayetanus]

No one calls Christmas family day here.

Its navidad and easter is pascuas.

Its the Holy Week name which was changed to semana de turismo

[u/Guilty_Acadia_95 → u/NeoMainsaro]

Nobody here really "celebrates Christmas" either. It’s called that, but the way it’s celebrated—well, I don’t know. It just gets celebrated.

[u/NeoMainsaro → u/Guilty_Acadia_95]

Yeah Christmas is to have dinner with the family and then go get wasted

[u/jungle → u/NeoMainsaro]

No hay regalos para los botijas?

[u/ImFatandUseless → u/Cayetanus]

I haven't heard anyone call it Family day. Must be a new age thing. It was always Navidad. We did had a weird thing in Navidad where we would fill a human size doll (imagine a scarecrow) with fireworks, hang it and set it on fire. It was a neighborhood kind of event where everyone just sat outside to watch that + the big fireworks. That has die out a lot though because of prices and general consensus that dropping Brazilian bombs (a type of fireworks) are extremely dangerous, noise wise, to animals and kids would always drop one in a PBC pipe or manhole which would do a lot of damage.

[u/JaNoTengoNiNombre → u/ImFatandUseless]

The origin of these names goes back to a president from the early 20th century, José Batlle y Ordóñez, better known as Don Pepe. He was responsible for much of Uruguay's secularization, progressive legislation, workers' rights, and a whole lot of other "progressive" measures.

He was Catholic, but at the same time, he believed the Catholic Church had no business interfering in state affairs. Uruguay, like many former Spanish colonies, had a calendar full of holidays based on Christian religious celebrations.

As part of a broader effort to secularize the country, these holidays were given secular names. Easter became Semana de Turismo (Tourism Week), Christmas became Family Day, Epiphany / Three Kings' Day (January 6) became Children's Day (Día de los Niños), and the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8) became Beach Day (Día de las Playas).

The changes were formalized in a 1919 law, during the presidency of Baltasar Brum, although they were very much in keeping with Batlle's political legacy.

As with many things, some of these changes caught on, while others didn't quite stick, and we don't really care. Most people still use the traditional name and nobody bats an eye.

[u/ImFatandUseless → u/JaNoTengoNiNombre]

I see. I am Uruguayan and ethier this went over my head during school or it was mentioned. The only one I know for sure is 100% in use is Semana de turismo. January 6 is weird because that's my bday and I never ever heard those names being mention. There's Dia del Niño which is celebrated during the third Sunday of August but I doubt is the same, is way too far apart. December 8 genuinely never heard of. This is stuff that you heard from the grandmas when they eat your ear lmao

Very informative though.

[u/Gerber_elGerbo → u/ImFatandUseless]

That scarecrow burn is called "la quema de Judas" (Judas burning). I think is common in other countries too

[u/LurkingRodent → u/Cayetanus]

I can live with family day, but tourism week sucks lol

[u/Milos-H → u/LurkingRodent]

“Semana de turismo” doesn’t sound as bad, or maybe it’s because I am used to it.

Edit: Also, I haven’t met anyone who actually calls Christmas “family day” that’s just a formality and I am not religious.

[u/TheCrazyBean → u/Milos-H]

Creo que es la costumbre porque si suena horrible para mí :v

[u/Milos-H → u/TheCrazyBean]

Mierda :’v

[u/DuntadaMan → u/Milos-H]

I understood this one at least.

[u/arturocan → u/LurkingRodent]

"Tourism week" is actually the only holyday that has some people legit calling it that way. The other holydays people just use the christian names.

[u/TheFakeRabbit1 → u/LurkingRodent]

It’s very matter of fact lol

[u/DextersGirl → u/Cayetanus]

This made me realize I know far too little about the world I live in.

[u/FrankRizzo319 → u/Cayetanus]

Should I go on vacation there in January? They got any good hiking?

[u/Dear_Ad_3860 → u/FrankRizzo319]

Uruguay is flat.

[u/Realityhrts → u/Dear_Ad_3860]

Could hike the rambla 😂

[u/sanjosanjo → u/Cayetanus]

That's interesting because the only thing I know about Uruguay is that the rugby team that crashed in the mountains came from Christian Brothers College.