Tuesday June 9th 2020 | Porto

25th April in Portugal

The day of the Revolution

25th April in Portugal | Blog

In the days of Easter, there is another important date approaching, with a first-order relevance for Portugal. It is a national holiday, and anyone who opens a Portuguese calendar will find the following name: Freedom Day.

And it is not for less, on April 25, 1974 the Carnation Revolution took place, an uprising of the army against the dictatorship that had been ruling Portugal for 48 years. Oppression, poverty and the colonial war plunged the Portuguese country into an abyss that ended up causing rejection even by a good part of the army.

During the night of April 24-25, the Portuguese captains took over the government buildings and key infrastructures of the country, and with only four deaths they took full control of Portugal, causing Prime Minister’s (Marcelo Caetano) escape to Brazil. We have much more details during our Free Tour.

It is easy to imagine the uncertainty of the Portuguese that morning when the tanks were found in the streets. After almost fifty years of dictatorship, nobody knew what exactly was going to happen, and there was a fear of a new military coup, a prolongation of the dictatorship or even a civil war.

And because of all this, the gesture of Celeste Caeiro, giving a carnation to a soldier, became such a powerful icon. The soldier placed the carnation in the barrel of his weapon, showing that he did not intend to shoot. It was an armed, but peaceful revolution.

Carnations became the symbol of a country that flourished, leaving the long winter of dictatorship to enter the spring of democracy. So those of you, who are in Portugal on April 25 will see carnations everywhere. To join this celebration of freedom, you can buy a carnation in the Beira-Rio market that we met on our visit to Gaia.

With or without a carnation, we are waiting for you under the green umbrella!

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Labels: celebrations , Porto