Uruguay is the most secular country in the Americas and it arrived there deliberately, early, and by legislation rather than by drift.
The architect was Jose Batlle y Ordonez, president in the first two decades of the twentieth century, whose programme built a welfare state and a secular one together. The constitution of 1917, in force from 1919, separated church and state completely: religious instruction was removed from public schools, the church lost its tax exemptions, and public institutions were required to be non confessional. Divorce had already been introduced, including on the wife's sole request, which was among the earliest such provisions anywhere.
The state also renamed the calendar. Christmas became the Day of the Family, Holy Week became Tourism Week, Epiphany became Children's Day, and the feast of the Immaculate Conception became Beach Day. Those are the official names still, and Uruguayans use them without evident irony.
The result is a population of which around half reports no religion or describes belief without affiliation, a proportion unmatched in Latin America. Catholic practice is low even among those who identify as Catholic, and evangelical growth, while real, is smaller here than in neighbouring countries.
The clearest religious growth of recent decades has been in Afro Uruguayan traditions of Brazilian origin, Umbanda and Batuque, whose temples now number in the hundreds and are concentrated in Montevideo and the border towns. Each 2 February, offerings to Yemanja are carried into the sea from the beaches of Montevideo by very large crowds, in what has become the most visible public religious event in the country.