The meeting takes place on Saturday, next to the Monument to the Overseas Combatants, in Belém, and aims to bring together all citizens who want to “celebrate Portugal and pay tribute” to the military.
The 30th national meeting to pay tribute to combatants will take place on Saturday, Portugal Day, in Lisbon, to remember all the soldiers who served the country, in a ceremony in which a message from the President of the Republic will be read.
The meeting will take place next to the Monument to the Overseas Combatants, in Belém, and aims to bring together all citizens who want to “celebrate Portugal and pay tribute” to the soldiers who were “called to serve their homeland”.
Speaking to Lusa, the secretary of the Executive Committee for this year’s national tribute to combatants, Colonel José Evaristo, said that this meeting is promoted by a “civil society organization” that intends to pay tribute “to all who fought for Portugal : abroad and beyond, also in India”, regardless of “political colors or religions”.
According to the colonel, several associations “that come from all over the country” will be represented at this event.
The official detailed the program of the meeting, which begins at 10:30 a.m. with a mass in the Church of Santa María del Monasterio de los Jerónimos, “by the intention of Portugal and suffrage of the fallen combatants for the homeland”, celebrated by the Bishop of the Armed Forces and Security Forces, Rui Manuel Sousa Valério.
At around 12:15 p.m., the ceremony will begin next to the Monument to Combatants Abroad, at the Bom Sucesso Fort, in Belém, which begins with an opening speech by the President of the Executive Committee, Vice Admiral António Duarte, followed by the reading of a message sent by the President of the Republic and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.
The meeting will also feature an interreligious ceremony -Catholic and Muslim-, detailed Colonel José Evaristo, followed by a tribute to the dead, with the placement of flowers.
The National Anthem will be sung by the Casa Pia children’s choir in Lisbon and played by the National Republican Guard (GNR) band, while a Navy ship will perform a salute of arms.
The end of the ceremony is marked by the passage of Air Force aircraft and after the meeting there will be a convivial lunch, “provided by the Navy,” explained the colonel.
After stressing that the organization “does not get involved in demonstrations, nor does it have political objectives,” the official insisted that “the fundamental objective is to honor all those who fought for Portugal” and “some, many of them, stayed there.”
The colonel recalled meetings from previous years and said that many of the ex-combatants “are now also accompanied by their grandchildren, and that is something that moves us.”
Source: Observadora
