On April 25, 1974, the restaurant where Celeste Caeiro worked, on Rua Braamcamp, in Lisbon, celebrated one year of existence. That day, the establishment’s managers’ plan, to commemorate the anniversary, was to distribute carnations to the ladies and port wine to the gentlemen, however, with the coup d’état taking place, the restaurant ended up not opening its doors.
For this reason, the carnations ended up on the hands, lapels and barrels of the rifles of the April soldiers who, in this way, accepted the offer of the one who would become known as the Celeste of Carnations. And so, the poet Rosa Guerreiro Dias immortalized this “Celeste in bloom” in a poem he dedicated to him: “With this gesture, woman / You brought Glory to the country. / You are not just any woman / Nor will anyone enter History / You are only Portuguese / One woman in so many thousand / But you will certainly be / Woman of the April carnations.” History is also made up of accidents!
In Vila Verde, the mark of the April carnations was felt well with the initiative that spread around 1500 red carnations, produced by students from our schools, through the streets of our village and also in Vila de Prado, in an initiative that involved the groups of Municipal Schools, Vila Verde Secondary School, EPATV and Colégio D. João de Aboim. Vila Verde gave the April celebrations the importance and prominence that this date deserves, promoting a vast set of actions that aimed to remember the moment in which Portugal freed itself from the yoke of the Estado Novo dictatorship.
Involving the younger generations in these initiatives is always to be praised and, therefore, it is also in schools that we must remember April. Today, 55% of the national population was born into full democracy and, fortunately, never felt the hardness of the blue pencil of censorship, the merciless repression of a political police or the torture that many went through just for disagreeing. More than half of the population was born in a phase of consolidated democracy, open to the world and Europe and which separated us from the “proudly alone” condition, which characterized the politics of the old Estado Novo, and elevated us to a level of belonging to Europe and to the globalized world.
Vila Verde soon joined the intentions of the revolution, a sentiment highlighted in the minutes of the Chamber meeting on May 2, 1974, displayed, in these days, in the Municipal Library of Vila Verde. At that meeting, chaired by Professor Fausto Feio Soares Azevedo and attended by other illustrious councilors, one of whom was my fellow countryman, a native of Vilarinho, Professor Ernesto Alves Ferreira, the participants unanimously joined in a salute of support for the Armed Forces: “The foundations of a new society are thus laid in which all Portuguese, subject to the same rights and duties, can and should participate in the greater greatness of the Fatherland.”.
April 25th was the most important day in the country’s democratization process and therefore deserves to be highlighted in relation to other dates related to this revolutionary period. However, it cannot be disconnected from other historically important moments that preceded and followed it.
Post-revolution, it is important to highlight the turbulence that the country experienced in the following months, with evident confrontation between moderates and extreme left forces; the projected “Easter massacre” and the consequent failed military coup of March 11, 1975; or the final blow in this revolutionary process that led us to the consolidation of democracy in Portugal with the victory of the moderates on November 25, 1975 that some want to forget but which, along with many other moments from this period in our recent history, should also be remembered , as they are all part of a path that led the country to the democracy we are today. Long live April 25th and congratulations to all the soldiers who courageously risked their skin and their lives for the love of this country. We owe him eternal gratitude for our freedom!
