Abril Sempreβ¦
ππ ππ πππ«π’π₯ π¬ππ¦π©π«π! (ππππ‘ π¨π ππ©π«π’π₯ ππ₯π°ππ²π¬!)
On the 25th of April 1974, a militar coup swept away the dictatorship in Portugal.
The coup had two secret signals. The first was the airing at 10:55 p.m. on 24 April of Paulo de Carvalho's "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 RÑdio Renascença broadcast "GrÒndola, Vila Morena" (a song by Zeca Afonso, an influential political folk musician and singer who was banned from Portuguese radio at the time).
As dawn came up on 25 April, the soldiers were joined in the streets of the capital by rejoicing crowds so that the coup instantly morphed into a gigantic celebration, spontaneous and ebullient. In Lisbonβs flower market soldiers placed carnations in the muzzles of their rifles, thus creating the symbol and the very name of the event: the Carnation Revolution. Almost no shots were fired and the few who died were killed by agents of the collapsing regimeβs hated secret police, the PIDE.
We call this day βDia da Liberdade, Freedom Dayβ.
