Defenestrar: a very Portuguese verb

Portugal has scrapped 4 holidays in 2012.  

The government drops the holidays of Republic Day (5 October), Independence Day (December 1), Corpus Christi (mobile holiday this year to June 7) and the Assumption of Our Lady (August 15). The proposal is part of the draft labour reform that will be analyzed by the social partners next week and then back by the Council of Ministers.

For many people in Portugal, having the two civil holidays cancelled is understood as a provocation, an offensive way to underestimate the power of people:  the abolishment of the monarchy and the retake of Portugal from the Spanish hands.   Nothing could be as offensive.

A blogger says:

"It is a tremendous symbolism, that the year of Troika occupation will be the last year Portugal will celebrate its independence."

Source article

Do you know what happened on this day, on the December 1st in 1640? 

On December 1st, 1640, Miguel Vasconcelos was the Secretary of State (prime minister) of the Duchess of Mantua, vice-queen of Portugal, on behalf of King Philip IV of Spain (Philip III ofPortugal).  He was hated by the people, being Portuguese, for collaborating with the Philippine representative of Spanish domination. He was the first victim to be thrown out of the window.   Yes.  This was how the Portuguese people decided to oust the enemies of their land.  .

After entering the palace, the conspirators hunted for Miguel Vasconcelos, but there was no sign of him anywhere in the Palace: they had walked the halls, the offices,the chambers of the minister, and nothing.  It turn out that Miguel de Vasconcelos, when he realized that he could not escape, got inside a closet and shut himself inside with a gun. 

What finally denounced he was hiding there inside was actually the size of the cabinet: the fugitive, trying to move there inside to change his position, squirmed inside, causing a loud noise due to the amount of paper, boxes etc which were inside the cabinet.  The conspirators heard it all and started to kick the cabinet's door, finally having it opened and shooting Vasconcelos.   Then, they grabbed the corpse and  threw it out the window.
The body fell in the middle of a mob who started to revenge on it all their wrath, committing real atrocities and after that,  being left at the crash site to be licked by dogs, a symbol of pure debauchery.

Another blogger says:

"This is the last year when December the 1st and the Republic day will be national holidays.  Interestingly these are two dates supported by popular revolutions. Maybe for this government, revolutions are neither good to remember nor to celebrate."

Source article 

Vocabulary:

The special verb (action word) to learn from this story is the verb that defines the "spirit" of the revolution on the December 1st in Portugal:  DEFENESTRAR - to violently throw through or out of the window.

Revolution - Revolução 

Palace -  Palácio

Cabinet (furniture) -  Armário

Troika  -  The term Troika has been widely used in Greece (Greek: τρόικα)^[1] and Ireland,^[2] and now Portugal (Portuguese: troika)^[3] to refer to the presence of the European Union, European Central Bank, and International Monetary Fund in these countries since 2010 and the financial measures that the three governments have been forced to take.  (wikipedia)