Romania’s National Day, Celebrated in Portugal

On the 1st of December, the Romanian community from Portugal celebrated the Romania’s National Day. Cultural artistic events were organized in order to mark 90 years from the Great Union.

A recital commemorated the most important day of the Romanian nation and the centenary of Sigismund Toduta, one of the most important Romanian compositors. Constantin Sandu played the piano, Cristina Ioan the flaute and Radu Ungureanu the violin. The concert was an attempt of promoting its work in Portugal and took place at the Palacio Foz from Lisbon and at the Escola Superior de Musica e das Artes do Espectaculo from Porto. “Bénie sois-tu, prison”, a movie directed by Nicolae Margineanu which shows a story about a Romanian girl in the Stalinist austere atmosphere of the ’40 was presented at the Romanian Cultural Institute’s Library, in Lisbon. The book “Portuguese Journal (1941-1945)” by the Romanian writer Mircea Eliade was translated into Portuguese and published by the Editura Guerra e Paz. The events were organized by the Romanian Cultural Institute from Lisbon. “The 1st of December is a double celebration for us: the Romania’s National Day and the Regaining of Independence in Portugal. We are happy that we have two important joy reasons at the same time”, said the Romanian Ambassador in Portugal, Gabriel Gafita.

The Romanian community was formed in Portugal mainly in the last ten years. According to the official annual report divulgated by the Portuguese Service for Strangers and Frontiers (Serviço de Estrangeiros e Fronteras- SEF) on 31st December 2007, 19.155 Romanian citizens live in Portugal, from a total of 435.736 stranger citizens with legal work license and residence documents. The number increased especially after the year 2000, due to the diplomatic-political , cultural and economical relations between Portugal and Romania.