Abstract
The article proposes to think the uses and senses of culture mobilized in disputes around the occupation of public time, as well as the possible articulations and displacements between the categories of religion, culture and nation, from a comparison between three cases of Brazilian commemorative days: the holiday of Our Lady of Aparecida, the Day of the Evangelical and the Day of Black Consciousness. Based on a mapping of legislation and the legislative process on the institutionalization of holidays in the Brazilian official calendar, we can observe how religious days are strongly interwoven with an idea of tradition and popular customs. What stands out as an element of construction of the Brazilian national identity is Catholicism, as we observed in the discussions about the holiday of Aparecida. The Day of the Evangelical and the Day of the Black Consciousness would bring other elements to the national calendar, triggering also categories such as ethnicity, diversity, majority and minority.
Keywords:
calendar; religion; culture; nation