Portugal National Day 2021: Google Doodle celebrates Portuguese Dia de Camões

Google Doodle celebrates Portugal National Day, officially Day of Portugal, Camões and the Portuguese Communities (Dia de Portugal, de Camões e das Comunidades Portuguesas), on June 10, 2021. It remembers the death on 10 June 1580 of Luís de Camões, a poet and national literary icon.

It is one of the public holidays in Portugal and celebrated by Portuguese people all through the world. Albeit authoritatively noticed only in Portugal, Portuguese residents and emigrants all through the world celebrate this holiday.

Portuguese National Day is celebrated every June 10th by the two occupants of Portugal and people of Portuguese ancestry everywhere in the world. Its official, and any longer, the name is “Day of Portugal, Camoes, and of the Portuguese Communities”.

Portugal National Day History

The date of the holiday was picked because the death of Portugal’s most celebrated author, Luis de Camoes, happened on June 10th, 1580. While the holiday recognizes Camoes, it is likewise an opportunity to celebrate everything Portuguese, including Portugal’s history, culture, language, and national achievements.

In 1572, Camões composed Os Lusíadas (usually translated as The Lusiads), Portugal’s national epic praising Portuguese history and accomplishments. While it is just officially celebrated in Portugal, Portuguese descendants across the world may likewise celebrate the holiday.

The Lusiads focuses on the Portuguese explorations in the 15th century, which incredibly extended the impact of Portugal and carried popularity and fortune to the country. The poem, considered one of the best and most significant works in Portuguese literature, became a symbol for the extraordinary feats of the Portuguese Empire. The poem is viewed as the most important piece of Portuguese literature and has become a symbol for the wonder of the Portuguese country.

Camões was a colorful character. He lost one eye battling and was shipwrecked off the coast of present-day Vietnam. As per legend, during the shipwrecking, he kept his epic poem dry by swimming with one arm and keeping the other arm above water.

In the year that Camões died, Portugal lost its independence to Spain and started a period of rule by three generations of Spanish kings. It was more than 60 years before the nation regained its independence.

For such national days, it is common practice to use a date of birth to mark the national day, yet since Camões’ date of birth was not known, the date of his death is celebrated instead.

During the standard of the Portuguese authoritarian regime up to 1974, Camões was used as a symbol for the Portuguese ‘race’ by the patriots. Therefore, the June 10th celebrations were formally suspended during the Carnation Revolution in 1974, continuing as a more inclusive celebration including celebrating Portuguese communities throughout the world.

There are official celebrations including the President, Prime Minister, and other high-ranking people. Awards/Honors are given out and there is a military exhibition.

Recently it has become a custom to part in Portugal Day celebrations between a city within Portugal and a foreign city with a significant Portuguese presence (Rio de Janeiro or Paris, for example).

In the USA, there are sizeable Portuguese American communities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Florida, Louisiana, Nevada, California, and Hawaii.

As the day of Camoes’ birth isn’t known, the day of his death was picked rather as the date for Portugal’s National Day. As it so occurred, he died at the time of the loss of Portuguese independence to Spain after the Portuguese king died without a beneficiary in 1580. This prompted 50 years of rule by Spain and denoted the end of the incredible age of which Camoes has become the symbol.

National Day is praised in Portugal by street parties and family gatherings all over Portugal and beyond. There is a lot of feasting, singing patriotic songs, sports and recreation, and different festivities. Numerous additionally read Camoes’ famous poem The Lusiads.

National Day in Portugal is a memorable opportunity for both Camoes and the whole Portuguese heritage. The traveler will discover there is a lot of interest both to do and to learn on this holiday.

Google Doodle on Portugal National Day 2021

On June 10, 2021, Google observes Portugal National Day 2021 with Google Doodle. The present Doodle honors this nationwide holiday, celebrated every year by the Portuguese community throughout the world.

Since the time Portugal acquired independence in 1640, June 10 has been seen as Dia de Camões. Customarily on this day, the national Portuguese kind of music and song are known as fado can be heard repeating into the roads, as revelers celebrate this centuries-long tradition of their common Portuguese heritage. A symbol of the country’s culture, fado music includes the Portuguese guitar, a 12-stringed chordophone portrayed in Google Doodle artwork.