You might think that, a place with little sunshine, not beaches and cold weather would be the country that celebrated its melancholy with pride. You'd be wrong.
"In Portugal, no one tells you to have a nice day. No one particularly cares if you have a nice day, because chances are they're not having a nice day either. If you ask a Portuguese person how they're doing, the most enthusiastic reply you can expect is mais ou menos (so so)," says Eric Weiner in an article on Portugal for the BBC.
"Portugal's culture of melancholy is hard to miss. You see it etched on people's sombre expressions - this is no Thailand, known as the Land of Smiles - and even in the statues that occupy prime real estate in Lisbon's public squares," notes Weiner.
Somehow, the Portuguese people are averse to happiness, as evidenced by the World Happiness Report.
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"Yes, Portugal is a sad land, ranking 93rd of 157 countries (just behind Lebanon), according to the UN's latest World Happiness Report. But don't pity the Portuguese. They're content with their discontentment, and, in an odd but enlightening way, actually enjoy it," says Weiner.
There's even a phrase for their sadness, "saudade."
"Saudade," writes scholar Aubrey Bell in his book In Portugal, is "a vague and constant desire for something... other than the present," says Weiner.
The Portuguese believe that sadness is an important part of life and they don't understand why people would want to avoid it.
For more on how Portugal is overcome with sadness, read on here.
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