Portugal has a strange ease in forgetting what it should remember. Some call it amnesia; Maybe it’s just a way of not bothering yourself. The truth is that we forget everything that requires effort: ideas, promises and, above all, lessons. Among which, the most instructive of all — that of the Great Lisbon Earthquake of November 1, 1755.
270 years ago, Lisbon collapsed and with it a way of thinking about the world collapsed. Several European thinkers and writers focused on the Lisbon disaster, which quickly became a topic of reflection across Europe. The 1755 Earthquake was, in this sense, more than a catastrophe: it functioned as an accelerator of European thought. Its seismic waves spread far beyond Lisbon — they shook consciences, fueled scientific debate and helped to redefine the way in which Europe, and later the world, would think about the relationship between reason, faith and nature.
But, curiously, the more the world learned from Lisbon, the more Lisbon seems to have forgotten what the world learned.
Today, November 1st is just another holiday. Imported masks and pumpkins are sold in stores, while the greatest natural disaster in our history goes unnoticed. It’s curious: we remember the little superstitions, but we forget the tragedy that should teach us to be better prepared. Maybe because it’s more comfortable to laugh at scares than to think about them.
Remembering the earthquake is an exercise in maturity — and that, let’s face it, was never our favorite sport. We prefer the innocence of certainties to the demands of conscience. We do what the country has always done: we trust in luck, as if evil were something that only happened to others; as if the evils of the world were just things on the TV news.
Sociologist Maurice Halbwachs wrote that collective memory is not a simple recording of the past, but an ongoing reconstruction, shaped by the social conventions and values of the population in the present. It is not transmitted as an inheritance; It is cultivated as a habit. Now, Portugal never made this habit a priority. It’s not a distraction, it’s a way of being: we replace memory with nostalgia — and nostalgia, by definition, is a feeling that looks back, fills our hearts, but teaches us little.
O Remember Movement 1755 was born to reverse this logic and return meaning to a date that the country treated as a footnote. It does not propose solemnities or endless speeches at official ceremonies. It proposes simple gestures: on the night of November 31st to 1st, the monuments will be illuminated in purple; At 9:40 am — the time Lisbon shook — firefighters from across the country will sound their sirens, and each citizen, that same day, is invited to place a piece of clothing of the same color in the window. A discreet gesture, but one of strong commitment — a reminder that we need a less selective and more conscious collective memory.
It’s not about nostalgia. It’s about lucidity. Remembering 1755 is accepting that memory is a form of prevention. A country that doesn’t remember what made it tremble won’t know how to prepare for what comes next. And the next big earthquake, unlike the past, does not need to take us by surprise. The 1755 earthquake was more than a tragedy: it was a moment of clarity. It made us realize that human strength lies less in rebuilding houses than in rebuilding thoughts. And perhaps that’s what we’re missing today — a memory that doesn’t just serve to mourn, but to guide.
Therefore, on this November 1st, the invitation is simple.
It is not to pray, nor to fear.
It’s for Remember 1755.
Hang a purple item of clothing in the window.
It is not valid for faith, nor for patriotism.
It’s worth it for conscience.
Because forgetting is the real failure — and memory, yes, is an anti-seismic structure that is within our power to build.
Founder of Quake – Lisbon Earthquake Museum