Commemorations and historiography

Abstract

National celebrations are suitable moments for festivity but also for thinking and rethinking historic events and their consequences. Commemorations are usually studied from the political and even esthetical point of view (parties, monuments, speeches). This article supports the fact that commemorations are also important due to society’s debates around the meaning and consequences of the commemorated events. For this, historiography is chosen because it is a discourse that reflects the social and ethnic-cultural tendencies of a community, and the ideological tensions that underlie the controversial ideas of nation. This article analyzes the celebrations of the Independence Day and the most important historiographical discussions of our independent and republican tradition.