First National Government () is a

public holiday A public holiday, national holiday, federal holiday, statutory holiday, bank holiday or legal holiday is a holiday generally established by law and is usually a non-working day during the year. Types Civic holiday A ''civic holiday'', also k ...

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, commemorating the May Revolution and the creation of the Primera Junta on May 25, 1810, which is considered the first patriotic government of Argentina. Along with the 9 July, which commemorates the

Declaration of Independence A declaration of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another state or failed state, or are breaka ...

, it is considered a National Day of Argentina.

History

Commemorations of the May Revolution have been held since 1811, the first anniversary: Cornelio Saavedra ruled so for Buenos Aires, and

Manuel Belgrano Manuel José Joaquín del Corazón de Jesús Belgrano (3 June 1770 – 20 June 1820), usually referred to as Manuel Belgrano (), was an Argentina, Argentine public servant, economist, lawyer, politician, journalist, and military leader. He to ...

and

Juan José Castelli Juan José Castelli (19 July 176412 October 1812) was an Argentina, Argentine lawyer who was one of the leaders of the May Revolution, which led to the Argentine War of Independence. He led an ill-fated military campaign in Upper Peru. Juan Jo ...

did the same during their military campaigns at the cities they had under control during the anniversaries. The day was officially declared a national day by the Assembly of Year XIII on May 5, 1813. The 1816

Argentine Declaration of Independence The Independence of the Argentine Republic (or ''La Independencia de Argentina'' in spanish) was declared on July 9, 1816, by the Congress of Tucumán. In reality, the congressmen who were assembled in Tucumán declared the independence ...

provided an alternative national day. In the beginning, this added to the conflicts between Buenos Aires and the provinces in the Argentine Civil War, with the date in May being related particularly to Buenos Aires and 9 July to the whole country. This led the unitarian Bernardino Rivadavia to cancel the celebration on July, and the federalist

Juan Manuel de Rosas Juan Manuel José Domingo Ortiz de Rozas y López de Osornio (30 March 1793 – 14 March 1877), nicknamed "Restorer of the Laws", was an Argentine politician and army officer who ruled Buenos Aires Province and briefly the Argentine Confedera ...

to re-allow it, but without giving up celebrations on May. The celebrations in 1857, when Buenos Aires had temporary seceded from the Argentine Confederation, were large and included the remodelation of the Plaza. By 1880, with the federalization of Buenos Aires, the local connotations were removed and the May Revolution was considered the birth of the nation. Massive celebrations of the holiday have been a tradition during the 19th century and part of the 20th century, but were slowly forgotten by the end of it. However, the Argentina Bicentennial held in 2010 raised again the public interest in the holiday, becoming the most attended public event in the history of Buenos Aires.

Legal status

May 25 is considered a national and non-workable holiday by law 21.329.Law Nº 21329
Requires

Microsoft Word Microsoft Word is a word processor program, word processing program developed by Microsoft. It was first released on October 25, 1983, under the name Multi-Tool Word for Xenix systems. Subsequent versions were later written for several other platf ...

It is immovable, meaning it is celebrated on May 25 regardless of day of the week.

References

{{authority control National days May observances Public holidays in Argentina May Revolution Autumn in Argentina