Today is Portugal Day. The Portuguese President, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, has announced, due to conditions resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic, this year’s celebrations would be consolidated to a symbolic ceremony at the Jerónimos Monastery in Lisbon, with just eight guests invited.

 

Portugal Day, officially known as Dia de Cam?es, de Portugal e das Comunidades Portuguesas ('Day of Cam?es, Portugal, and the Portuguese Communities'), commemorates the death of Luís de Cam?es on June 10, 1580. It is Portugal's National Day.

Cam?es is an immortal representative of Portuguese universalism and humanism. His poem Lusiads is considered to be the most important piece of Portuguese literature and has become a symbol for the glory of Portuguese nation.

Nowadays, Portugal Day becomes a more inclusive celebration and is celebrated by Portuguese communities in different countries, condensing the centripetal force of the Portuguese around the world. On this particular occasion, Hengtong receives a letter from the Consul General of Portugal in Shanghai, in which full confidence has been expressed in defeating the pandemic through bilateral and international cooperation. Also conveyed is an appointment that, on this occasion next year, celebrations will be carried out together as triumph would have been long declared.

Hengtong and Portugal have been enjoying long-term close relations. After the pandemic broke out in China, Alcobre donated over 70,000 masks, among other things, timely to China, which played a significant role in rescuing lives and controlling the pandemic in Wuhan and Jiangsu. When Portugal was hit, Hengtong donated some 35,000 masks to Portugal for Alcobre and others to protect the people on the ground from the virus. Such a grand swing of medical supplies highlights a bridge of humanitarianism and friendship across the Eurasia Continent.