Mozambique Armed Forces Day: September 25
Armed Forces Day is a public holiday in Mozambique.
Several nations of the world hold an annual Armed Forces Day to recognize, venerate, and honor their military forces. September 25, 1964: Mozambique Celebrates the formation of the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO) by anti-Portuguese groups who then began their armed campaign against colonial rule. This is also known as Revolution Day or the Liberation Forces Day. An Armed Force Day is a day when all people of a nation come together to appreciate and support the armed forces for a day to pay homage to the armed forces.
Mozambique Armed Forces Day History
It is a public holiday that commemorates the armed struggle for national independence against the Portuguese. The struggle was initiated by the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique and continued during the 1960s and early 1970s. Independence came not as a result of the armed struggle but only after a socialist-inspired coup took place in Portugal in 1974.
After World War II, while many European nations were granting independence to their colonies, Portugal maintained that Mozambique and other Portuguese possessions were overseas territories of the metropole (mother country), and emigration to the colonies soared. Calls for Mozambican independence developed apace, and in 1962 several anti-colonial political groups formed the Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), which initiated an armed campaign against Portuguese colonial rule in September 1964. However, Portugal had ruled Mozambique for more than four hundred years; not all Mozambicans desired independence, and fewer still sought change through armed revolution.
FRELIMO was founded in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania on 25 June 1962, when three regionally based nationalist organizations – the Mozambican African National Union (MANU), National Democratic Union of Mozambique (UDENAMO), and the National African Union of Independent Mozambique (UNAMI) merged into one broad based guerrilla movement. Under the leadership of Eduardo Mondlane, elected president of the newly formed Mozambican Liberation Front, FRELIMO settled its headquarters in 1963 in Dar-es-Salaam.
The Rev.Uria Simango was its first vice-president. Headquartering the movement in Mozambique would not have been practicable because of the intolerance of the Portuguese for nationalist movements and the strength of the police. (The three founding groups had also operated as exiles.) Tanzania and its president, Julius Nyerere, were sympathetic to the Mozambican nationalist groups. Convinced by recent events, such as the Mueda massacre, which peaceful agitation would not bring about independence, FRELIMO contemplated the possibility of armed struggle from the outset, although it did not launch its first attack until September 1964.
Mozambique Armed Forces Day Customs and Activities
Armed force day is one those days, which is celebrated in many countries in order to respect their military organizations together. On this day, all the divisions of the defense together are respected for their huge devotion and dedication towards the country. Though different military organization have their own day, such as Army Day, Air Force Day, Navy Day etc, but the Armed forces Day together celebrates the achievement of all these branches of defense.
