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Portugal's National Day
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When:
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10 Jun 2008 (annual)
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Where:
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Portugal
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Also known as Camões Day, Portugal's National Day marks the anniversary of the death of its greatest poet and writer, Luís de Camões, on 10 June, 1580, with a series of cultural events throughout the country.
Camões' most celebrated work is The Lusiads, an epic poem that recounts tales of the 16th-century Portuguese explorations during the "Golden Age of Discovery".
It is thought the author was born near the northern town of Chaves around 1524 and studied humanities in Coimbra, Portugal's finest and oldest university, later moving to Lisbon. He is known to have fought against the Moors in Morocco (where he lost an eye), stabbed a court official in Lisbon, served the king in Goa, took part in military expeditions to the Malabar Coast and the Red Sea, was shipwrecked off the Mekong and saved, along with the manuscript of his epic work. So the poem was not pure imagination, but actually draws on personal experience.
For more information on what is happening near you on this day, please contact the local tourist office of the city, town or region that you're visiting.
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