IT HAPPENED IN FEBRUARY

• 04, 1799 - Almeida Garret, one of the most remarkable Portuguese writers of the Romanticism was born in Oporto. In 1807, his family was forced to move to Angra, in the Azores, due to the French Invasions to Portugal. Garrett began his studies there. Years later, already back in Portugal, he graduated in Law at the Coimbra University. Then he took cabinet in Lisbon. During his political exile, Garret stayed in France and in the UK; in the fulfilment of his diplomatic career he had to live in Belgium. Among his most well known literary works we find "O Retrato de Vénus" (Portrait of Venus), no doubt his first great writing, "O Arco de Santana", "Viagens na Minha Terra", "Frei Luís de Sousa" among so many others. He was also a pedagogue, a journalist, a politician, a man of Law, as well as a founder of several cultural institutions.
   
• 04 - Sri Lanka's National Day: known as the Ceylon of ancient times, the island was a Portuguese possession since 1505 until the second half of the XVII century. It passed then to the hands of the Dutch and later to those of the English, who stayed there until independance was signed in 1948. The island took the name of Sri Lanka in 1972.
   
• 06 - New Zealand's National Day: anniversary date of the Waitingi Treaty, in 1840.
   
• 14 - Valentine's Day: Valentine, patron saint of all lovers, is celebrated on this day.
   
  The origin of Valentine’s Day is somehow obscure though one thing is clear: it is a tribute to one of the seven saints (as tradition says) named Valentine who are celebrated on February 14. He was a physician and a priest in Rome at the time of Claudius II, and his character fits particularly in the symbol of a lovers’ patron saint.
   
  Would you like to read about Saint Valentine and how this tradition began?
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