Liberty Day 2008
Today marks the 34th anniversary of the Portuguese Carnation Revolution, where we became free of our dictator. As always, there are big parties going on, and I just came from one, the first of this special day, began exactly at midnight.
I almost didn’t make it. I was supposed to go with some friends, but ended up going with my mother. Don’t ask me how that happened, it just did.
When we got there, there were people everywhere. By the river specially, from where the fireworks get fired up. You couldn’t get anywhere near it. So we waited in a big park nearby to watch the show.
Near that park, there was a stage put up for the event, where loud speakers playing typical songs of the 25th of April Revolution were. The most famous ones got everyone singing along, which was really beautiful and warm. It was special.
And the fireworks, those were wonderfully synchronized with the musics that were playing. It’s the first time they’ve done it too, at least since I can remember. And it turned out great. The blasts and the explosions of color were almost perfectly synchronized with the different rhythms of the songs.
I loved one special detail in particular. When Grândola Vila Morena was playing, the song that started the Revolution itself, all the fireworks launched were red, like the carnations used to replace the weapons. That was the one people sang along more as well. Did I mention it was special? It really was. (listen in boomp3.com)
The whole event was extremely innovative and creative, and it turned out perfect. To think I almost missed it.
Happy Liberty Day!
Is there a nobler aspiration that the desire to be free? It is by his freedom that a man knows himself, by his sovereignty over his own life that a man measures himself. To violate that freedom, to flout that sovereignty, is to deny man the right to live his life, to take responsibility for himself with dignity. [...] To strip man of his freedom is not to believe in man.
Elie Wiesel, From the Kingdom of Memory
