About 90 people gathered at a Portuguese restaurant in the British capital, where they sang in unison, standing up and holding red carnations in their hands, "Grandola, Vila Morena", the song that encapsulates the spirit of the spirit of April. Sheets with the lyrics of the music of the time to allow everyone to participate were distributed around the tables, as well as a questionnaire testing knowledge about facts and curiosities before and after the fall of the dictatorship. The event was organized by the civic group Migrantes Unidos, which five years ago merged its annual lunch to commemorate April 25th with the annual meeting of a group of former anti-fascist opponents living in the United Kingdom to mark the date. This year, the turnout exceeded expectations. For João Martins, 43, this was the first time attending this event, making a three-hour train trip on purpose to join the commemoration in the company of his 13-year-old daughter. "As we couldn't celebrate in Portugal, I wanted to do it with more people, and I thought it was important for Kora to learn more about the most important day in Portugal's history," he told the Lusa agency. Martins grew up in Unhos, Loures, in a family of political activists, so he got used to going down Avenida da Liberdade in the April 25th parades. His father, who worked at the Loiça de Sacavém Factory, was once arrested for going on strike and his mother was part of the Democratic Women's Movement (MDM). Kora, 13, had already heard some stories from her grandparents about April 25th, but now she is learning more about the importance and meaning of the event. At the same table, Gerard and Sylvia Moreira are present in memory of their father and husband, Claude Moreira, who died recently, but who was active in Portuguese anti-fascist opposition groups in the 1960s and 1970s. Claude Moreira filmed the demonstrations during then-Prime Minister Marcelo Caetano's visit to London in 1973 and was a regular at the annual gatherings to mark the Carnation Revolution. "Usually the women would sit in one corner of the table and the men in the other, talking loudly about politics. They had many discussions," Sylvia recalled to Lusa. In the last years of his life, Claude Moreira was unable to attend the usual lunches because he was ill, so Sylvia was unable to contain her emotion and cried, comforted by her son, during the reading of a poem in the room. The original text was written on Thursday by Sandra Guerreiro while following the April 25th celebrations in Portugal on television. "I wanted to do something special for today's event. I was nervous because I don't usually write such biographical things," she told Lusa. Born in August 1974, Guerreiro says she has always been aware of the importance of the revolution. The family was from Alentejo, where there was a great sense of resistance to the dictatorship, the father was a trade unionist at the Setenave shipyards and emigrated to Luxembourg in 1973 because he disagreed with the colonial war. Maria João Chuço also recalls how April 25th marked the end of the persecution of her parents as Jehovah's Witnesses, whose cult was banned during the Salazarist regime. "For me it is essential not to forget what April 25th is and how life was before in Portugal," she stressed. Álvaro de Miranda, one of the founders of the original meeting of anti-fascists in the 1970s to commemorate April 25th, was pleased with the interest in the event and hopes that the high turnout is a sign of continuity. "I doubt that it will be possible to gather as many times as today, but let's hope that many people will continue to come in the coming years and work with us on other initiatives," he said. Read Also: April 25th parade was "impressive celebration of democracy" (Portuguese version)