Gentlemen:

Today is a national holiday in Portugal. It is one of the important holidays in my country. We celebrate Portugal, the language, Luis de Camões - our most treasured poet (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lu%C3%ADs_de_Camões) - and the Portuguese communities spreaded around the globe.
We celebrate our (somewhat) glorious past, honour the personalities that have honoured the country in a cerimony in which the President of the Republic awards some medals and other honours and, most important of all - for me - the war veterans gather to pay tribute to the fallen soldiers in the wars Portugal has been involved in.

So, it's a bit of 4th of July, Veteran's Day and the 18th of November.

But that is not the most important thing because... one year ago today I decided to quit smoking cigarettes and became a dedicated pipe smoker. Next year it will be 10 years since I started pipe smoking. I was 16 then...