Just like 50 years ago, the armored vehicles arrived at the Carmo Barracks, in the center of Lisbon, full of people on top, after completing the journey that brought them from the Terreiro do Paço. Already at the place where the fall of the previous regime and the victory of the military were consummated, the people once again took to the streets, with red carnations in their hands and on their chests.

"It is a day of freedom, a day when we have to value what we have today. The younger generations did not go through what my parents went through and passed on to me, and what I want to pass on to them is that it is a day that has to be celebrated, a day of freedom and unity. We always gather here in Largo do Carmo to commemorate", Nuno Silveira tells Lusa, accompanied by his daughter taking pictures inside a military transport truck.

At 56 years old, he keeps from that April 25, 1974, the memory of not having classes at school and the surprise it represented for the family, when his mother went to call his uncle, who was in the army and was still sleeping when the revolution took place. The day 50 years ago is part of the past, but also of the future, and Nuno Silveira emphasizes the need to preserve the legacy of freedom and democracy.

"I would like to say that it is safe, but at this moment I am no longer certain and because I am not certain, I instill this spirit of freedom. We have to maintain this spirit of freedom and democracy, we cannot lose it. Through the vote, I do not force them, but I show those who want to vote that not everyone had the freedom to do so", he stresses.

In another armored vehicle, Sílvia Ribeiro poses for her husband's photograph next to the dog Mel, imitating so many other people throughout the day. It is a very important day for Portugal and for all of us. It is the freedom to be able to say and do what we understand", she says.

At 43, Sílvia Ribeiro was born seven years after the Carnation Revolution, but explains that her husband was already born and that the family histories intersect with that of April 25, with a father who fought overseas and a daughter about to turn 18 and to study political science, after growing up listening at home "since she was little" about the importance of this date.

Graça Vaz, who came with her husband, daughter and grandchildren, still remembers that April 25, 1974, when she was preparing for another day of work at the Angola bar (then in the Anjos area) and was 25 years old, a baby who was not yet three months old and a husband embarked in the Azores.

"I left to catch the metro in Alvalade, I got there and it was closed. There was a man there and he said, 'Where are you going?', and I replied 'I'm going to work'. The man said, 'Go home quickly, because there is a coup d'état', and I said, 'What is a coup d'état?'... So, I started walking home. I was alone and very scared", she recalls.

She assumes that she was about to not go to the 50th anniversary celebrations of April 25 and that she only went out at her daughter's insistence. Now, she does not regret having changed her plans and highlights the joy of the people in the evocation of the "whole and clean initial day", as described by the poet Sophia de Mello Breyner: "It must be kept alive and continue, we must always live it with joy, as we are living now".

If the celebrations are a revisit to that day in the past, the future was marked by the presence of many children and young people who wanted to climb the tanks to take pictures and learn a little more about April 25.

Among these young people is Daniel Ferreira, 13 years old, who highlights the smell of gasoline from the vehicle and the change that took place in Portugal 50 years ago. "[April 25] is 50 years old and it is an important date for the beginning of freedom. We stopped having a dictatorship and started having democracy. People can vote, have more rights and can have their opinion. It is an important date", he summarizes.

The revolution that took place 50 years ago had a great international echo and today it did not pass by the many foreigners who walk through the historic center of Lisbon. And if some are just visiting, others, like Stepan Franchak, made Portugal their country to live in and have already learned the meaning of the date.

"It meant the end of the dictatorship, the end of Salazar's regime and the beginning of democracy in Portugal", says the Ukrainian citizen, who has been living here for 20 years and who, in flawless Portuguese, leaves a message about April 25: "Freedom has to be deserved. The people have to manage it and see if everything is in accordance with democracy and freedom".

Leia Também: PS, BE, PCP and IL praise "massive participation" in the parade in Lisbon (Portuguese version)