The Carnation Revolution

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25th of April, an important mark for the Portuguese people! But why is this date so important to them? To us? Well, to answer this question we need to go back in time, to 25th of April 1974, when occurred a revolution with the aim to overthrown the authoritarian “Estado Novo” regime that had lasted nearly 5 decades. This regime was created by António de Oliveira Salazar and was known by the moto “Deus, Pátria e Familia” (“God, Fatherland and Family”) it was a regime marked by the “Guerra Colonial”, by PIDE (an oppressive police that chased who was against the regime) and by the lack of liberty.

Several military officers who opposed the regime formed the MFA (Movimento das Forças Armadas in English Armed Forces Movement) to overthrow the government in a military coup. The coup had two secret signals, two songs. The first was aired at 10:55 p.m. on 24 April. It was a song by Paulo de Carvalho called "E Depois do Adeus" (Portugal's entry in the 1974 Eurovision Song Contest), which alerted the rebel captains and soldiers to begin the coup. The second signal came at 12:20 a.m. on 25 April, when “Rádio Renascença” broadcast "Grândola, Vila Morena" (a song by Zeca Afonso).

Six hours later, Marcello Caetano (prime minister at the time) surrenders. Despite repeated radio appeals from the "captains of April" (the MFA) advising the population to stay home, thousands of Portuguese took to the streets supporting the military insurgents.

The name of the revolution comes from the fact that almost no shots were fired, and Celeste Caeiro (an owner of a restaurant) offered carnations to the soldiers when the population took to the streets to celebrate the end of the dictatorship. Others followed suit, and carnations were placed in the muzzles of guns and on the soldiers' uniforms.

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This year we celebrated 46 years of freedom!