This country's situation at the edge of the mysteries of the Great Ocean—the western boundary of Portugal is the Atlantic itselt—fostered the Portuguese longing for distant places, and the waves carried them with their dreams to remote shores, So in the course of one century, their great time, the Portuguese reach out ioward nearly two-thirds of the earth. The virgin island of Madeira and the Azores are colonized; the practically unknown coast of Africa is mapped; the Australian continent is discovered; Abyssinia is visited; the possession of Brazil is assured; the seaway to India and its treasures is found; Greenland is discovered; Ceylon is seen; the Malayan Archipelago and the coast of China are reached—not to speak of Japan.
Countless troubles have since beset the nation; but after many losses of colonies and their revenues Portugal still today is a ranking power among colonial empires, And as the festivities at Lisbon and throughout the country are planned as a kind of friendly family reunion, all the former Portuguese dependencies will participate, primarily Brazil, which until its Declaration of Independence in 1822 formed ihe economic backbone of the mother country.
The plans for this celebration indicate that the "Father of Portugal," Dr. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar, is convinced of Portugal's duty to honour her past and her present with these nation-wide observances during many months, even in a time of war when such an undertaking means a financial strain.
Portugal's history will be presented simultaneously in all parts of the country, arranged in three cycles: during the spring period. Dr. Salazar will deliver a speech from the walls of a castle sacred in Portugal's history. The State President will then hoist the flag of the first king, while the same flag will be flown from all the many castles of the land.
Nightly pageants will be held on the river and there will be a great display of fireworks, A naval review will be attended (it is hoped, in spite of war) by an international fleet; and at the Rock of Sagres a glorification of the exploits of the first navigators will recall ancient days.
The second cycle, to be presented during the Summer months, will represent the imperial epoch, and will bring an exhibition of Portuguese arts and occupations, far and near, past and present. In this exhibition will be assembled in a colonial garden representations of the colonial architecture and activities of India, China and Africa. One of the most spectacular events of the entire celebration will be a pageant in which the life of the twenty-one imperial provinces will be represented in a procession through the streets of the capital. The men, resources, products and customs of this far-flung nation, past and present, will be represented. Festivals will honour a great poet, Luiz de Cameos, There will even be an Olympic week at Lisbon, in a brand new stadium.
The Brigantine epoch (beginning 1640) will be celebrated from October to December, and will include historical pilgrimages and gala performances in a reconstructed opera house of Lisbon. A seventeenth-century quarter of Lisbon has been restored.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.