Olá, bom dia! Namaste! This Sunday, 8 November, homes across Portugal will glow with oil lamps for Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights. Five days of light, colour and sweets run from Friday to Tuesday. It’s a celebration with deep roots here. Vasco da Gama reached India in 1498, Goa was Portuguese for 451 years, and today more than 90,000 Indian nationals call Portugal home. Fact sheet Nº 5: India is now in the classroom. Here’s a nugget to start: when you ask for the key in Hindi, you say chābī, from the Portuguese chave. A towel is tauliyā, from toalha. And that vindaloo curry? It began as Portuguese vinha d’alhos, meat marinated in wine and garlic. Over to you: are you celebrating Diwali this weekend? And what’s your favourite Indian restaurant in Portugal? Shubh Deepavali! Saúde! 🍛

Olá, bom dia! Nǐ hǎo! Did you know that in Greek, Turkish and Romanian, the word for “orange” means “the Portuguese fruit”? The Portuguese carried sweet oranges west from Asia, and the name stuck. That’s just one thread in a 500-year story. A Portuguese ship reached China in 1513, the Portuguese settled Macau in 1557 and stayed until 1999, and today about 30,000 Chinese nationals live in Portugal. Fact sheet Nº 3: China, is now in the classroom, with the history, the food and a three-language table. Here’s a nugget: chá, the Portuguese word for tea, comes straight from Chinese. Over to you: what’s your favourite Chinese restaurant in Portugal? And has anyone tried a Macau-style egg tart? Gānbēi! Saúde! 🍵

Olá, bom dia! Yesterday, Lisbon’s biggest park had its birthday. On 1 November 1934, a decree created the Parque Florestal de Monsanto, on hills that were then nothing but fields and pasture. The first tree went in four years later, and the whole forest was planted by hand, tree by tree. Today’s sheet, Nº 22: Monsanto, is in the classroom. And a warning: there are two Monsantos! The park on Lisbon’s edge, and the hilltop village near Idanha-a-Nova where House of the Dragon was filmed. Here’s a nugget: both names may come from the Latin mons sanctus, “holy mountain”. Over to you: what’s your favourite corner of Monsanto? A viewpoint, a picnic spot, a cycle route? Bom passeio! 🌳

Olá, bom dia! Howdy! In 2023, 14,129 Americans lived in Portugal. A year later it was 19,258, up 36% in twelve months. And they keep coming: 4,448 more US citizens arrived in 2025. But the friendship is much older. In 1791, Portugal opened diplomatic ties with the young United States, and the Founding Fathers are said to have toasted their independence with Madeira. Fact sheet Nº 4: USA is now in the classroom. Here’s a nugget for the comments: Americans live in an apartment, Brits in a flat, and the Portuguese in o apartamento. Who’s right? Over to you: Americans, where did you come from, and why Portugal? Saúde, y’all! 🍷

On Friday 30th October 2026, Carl Munson’s Good Morning Portugal! news leads with Portuguese rural worker Joaquim Varela becoming Europe’s oldest living man at 111; he remains mentally sharp and vocal on social issues, while 110-year-old Idalina Moniz is Portugal’s second-oldest citizen. The Assembleia da República has passed two bills restricting permanent chaining of companion animals, banning pain-causing collars, and prohibiting pets on balconies; the measures still require presidential promulgation and are not yet enforced. Other headlines include one in five luxury homes in Portugal selling within 30 days, activists discussing the future of the housing movement in Lisbon and Porto, the former Tupperware factory in Constância sold for €4 million, the Lisbon mayor criticising an insurer for describing a funicular as unreliable, and a fall in the number of children in state care. Weather is mild and overcast, with Lisbon at 27°C and Évora 26°C. (Natasha Donn joins for the Portugal Resident news review at 09:15am, every Friday)