Officially, 10 June is the day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese communities (o dia de Portugal, de Camões e das comunidades portuguesas). This day also pays tribute to Portugal, its army and the entire Portuguese diaspora.
It was King Luís I who proposed to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the death of Luís de Camões on 10 June 1880. He declared a « Dia de Festa Nacional e de Grande Gala ».
When the first Portuguese republic succeeded the monarchy in 1910, however, 10 June was not listed as a possible public holiday. It was not until 1919 and the impetus of Teófilo Braga, a renowned poet and then President of Portugal. He had already been behind the commemorations of 10 June 1880. His aim was to highlight a secular figure in order to reduce the importance of the Church in the country.
Under the Estado Novo, Salazar’s regime, this day was reused under the name of Portuguese Race Day, giving it a nauseating connotation. It was during this period, in 1952, that 10 June also became the day of the guardian angel of Portugal. A religious dimension was thus added to a holiday that was supposed to be secular.
Fortunately, Luís de Camões was too popular in the country to be associated only with the dictatorship. Camões Day is unifying, whereas 25 April, the date of the Carnation Revolution, is too political. It is thanks to all this that the date of 10 June was kept after the overthrow of the Estado Novo.
Indeed, it was in 1977 that a decree made 10 June sacred as a « harmonious synthesis of the Portuguese Nation, the Portuguese communities spread throughout the world and the emblematic figure of the brilliant epic ». From now on, 10 June is the day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese communities. This allows the concept of the Portuguese race to be replaced by a more universalist idea of the day.
Today, 10 June is therefore a public holiday in Portugal. Commemorations are held throughout the country, but also in the Portuguese diaspora, which is present all over the world. More specifically, there are large communities in Spain, France (and Saint Bartholomew), the United States (in Rhode Island) and the former Portuguese colonies (in Brazil, Africa, India, etc.). Portugal’s leaders often visit these communities on 10 June. For example, in 2018, President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa visited the United States.
We can’t talk about the 10th of June without talking about the famous Luís de Camões! A leading author of the Portuguese-speaking world, he excelled in three literary genres in particular: comedy, lyric poetry and, above all, epic.
Indeed, his masterpiece, the Lusiades, is the Portuguese epic par excellence! This impressive collection of almost 9,000 verses is grouped into 10 songs (the names of the books) and tells the story of the journey and exploits of Vasco da Gama. The same one who opened the road to the Indies by continuing the path of Bartolomeu Dias. Another explorer who was the first to pass the famous Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa. In this way, Camões tells the history of Portugal, from its beginnings to his time, the 16th century. The name Lusiades comes from the ancient Roman province of Lusitania, which stretched from the Douro to the Guadiana rivers, comprising most of present-day Portugal.
The Lusiades, written while Camões himself was in the Indies, will be a founding myth of the Portuguese people, in the same way that the Aeneid was for Rome or the Odyssey for the Greeks. Greco-Latin Antiquity was in fact an important source of inspiration for Camões as it was for the other authors of the Renaissance.
The publication of the Lusiades in 1572 came six years before the mysterious disappearance of the young king Sebastian, to whom they were dedicated. This disappearance took place during a battle in Morocco when the king was not even 22 years old. He left no descendants and Portugal came under the domination of the Habsburgs, who ruled in Spain.
Camões, who died shortly afterwards (in 1579 or 1580 according to sources) is said to have had this famous phrase, according to Almeida Garrett (a great Portuguese author of the 19th century) « With me dies Portugal ». This death, which according to some authors took place in great misery, symbolises the golden age of Portugal, which had passed under Spanish rule.
Indocile, a brawler but also an adventurer and a man of letters, Luís de Camões embodies the Portuguese spirit of the great discoveries. Each era has taken up his legacy to embody its values. Thus, he was sometimes romantic, sometimes republican, sometimes nationalist… Today, he represents the universality of the Portuguese heritage, present on all continents!
- Although he came from a poor family, Luís de Camões had a prestigious ancestry! On his father’s side, his family comes from the Galician nobility. Vasco Pires de Camões was a famous poet in the 14th century. His fame made Ferdinand I, the king of Portugal at the time, offer him land to settle in his country. His son married Dona Guiomar da Gama, from the famous family of Vasco de Gama.
- In Macau, Camões retired to a cave to write part of the Lusiades. At the time, this Portuguese trading post in China, which faces Hong Kong, was not as populated as it is today. Despite the increasing urbanisation of the city, a park has been preserved around the Camões cave. In this cave you can see a statue of the writer. The whole place is dedicated to the Sino-Portuguese friendship.
- When Camões’ boat sank in the Mekong delta, he saved the manuscripts of the Lusiades in extremis. Another of his texts, the Parnassus of Luís de Camões, was not so lucky. Stolen in Mozambique, it never reached us.
- Dinamene is an aquatic nymph from Greek mythology. What does this have to do with Camões? Camões dedicated two poems to her, thus deifying a young Chinese woman he met in Macao and fell in love with. The latter left China with the poet but, when the boat sank in the Mekong delta, she drowned. This is why Camões uses the figure of the water nymph Dinamene to mourn her death.
- From his travels, Camões brought back a slave from the island of Java. This slave, named Jau or António from his baptismal name, became the writer’s friend. It is said that when Camões was on the verge of dying in poverty, Jau would walk the streets of Lisbon, begging to support his friend. A play was written in 1856 by the Brazilian Casimiro de Abreu about the friendship between the two men.
- The bones transferred to the Hieronymites’ monasteries in 1880 are probably not those of Camões! Indeed, during the Lisbon earthquake in 1755, the church of Santana, where he was buried, was destroyed. Camões’ grave could not be identified afterwards…
- What do an asteroid, a crater on the planet Mercury and a famous square in Lisbon have in common? They all bear the name of the famous writer! There are many tributes to Camões and there are countless works of art representing him.
Keywords that made it possible to find this research:
- 10 june
- portugal national
- day portugal
- Camões
- Camões Portugal
- Camões trips
- June 10 Camões
- Camões life
- Camões fun fact
- portugal festivities