yesterday was 25th of april, the freedom day in portugal, the day we regained independence from a ditactorship, through an almost bloodless revolution – the carnation revolution, called “revolução dos cravos” in portuguese, or “anjierrevolutie”, in dutch.

i wanted to celebrate, i wanted to make it memorable, so i came early to work and put a red carnation on each table of my department along with an explanation of the day. what for? i hoped i could enlighten people here on portugal’s history a little bit. give them a taste of what has been going on in my little sunny southern country, beyond the yearly forest fires that make it to dutch paper’s frontpages.
or at least, maybe a flower could just brighten up someone’s day. it was worth the shot.

well, i got huge feedback, both through emails and personal thanking. i was surprised to find out that some people even remembered the day because they had heard about it on the radio, 32 years ago. they remembered salazar, spínola, mário soares… and i learnt that yesterday was the day to remember the southern moluccas people, as well. south moluccas are a part of indonesia, a former colony of the netherlands, which tried to state their own repulic on this day, in 1950, but were re-integrated in indonesia later that year. the netherlands withdrew their support to the south moluccas after a series of terror attacks related to their subsequent attempts to gain independence (more about south moluccas here).

i’m happy to see that today, one day after, everybody still keeps their red carnations on their tables, in little white plastic cups.
it feels good to know that at least 60 people remembered the day here, that maybe they even told something to their wifes or kids in the evening. that it wasn’t just another day :)

viva a revolução!