{"id":728,"date":"2012-03-25T19:32:08","date_gmt":"2012-03-25T19:32:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/?p=728"},"modified":"2014-08-21T18:56:00","modified_gmt":"2014-08-21T18:56:00","slug":"25th-of-march-independence-day-of-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/25th-of-march-independence-day-of-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"25th Of March, independence day of Greece."},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0\u201cFreedom or death\u201c(\u0395\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03b8\u03b5\u03c1\u03af\u03b1 \u03ae \u03b8\u03ac\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2). These are the first words that come in the mind of every Greek in the sound of this date. The 25<sup>th<\/sup> of March is both national and religious holiday for Greece. It is the date that our ancestors back in the 1821 started their revolution against the Ottoman Empire.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In 29<sup>th<\/sup> of May 1453 Constantinople (Istanbul) was under attack by the Turks. Fighting against them, Constantine XI Palaiologos (the last emperor) was killed and the city passed to the hands of the Turks. \u00a0The Turkish sultan Mehmet the second captures the Constantinople (\u039a\u03c9\u03bd\u03c3\u03c4\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b9\u03bd\u03bf\u03cd\u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b7) and a difficult period, which lasted nearly 400 years, had just started for the Greeks.\u00a0 Greek churches are closing down and every Greek is forced to speak Turkish.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0At that time, Greeks in order to maintain their language, their religion and their identity strong they created the secret schools. In these schools teachers where usually priests.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Many unorganized attempts against the Turks have failed during these years.\u00a0 In 1814 the \u201cPhiliki Etaiaria\u201d(Friendly Society) is founded by Athanassios Tsakalof (\u0391\u03b8\u03b1\u03bd\u03ac\u03c3\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u03a4\u03b1\u03ba\u03ac\u03bb\u03bf\u03c6), Emanuel Xanthos(\u0395\u03bc\u03b1\u03bd\u03bf\u03b8\u03ae\u03bb \u039e\u03ac\u03bd\u03b8\u03bf\u03c2) and Nikolaos Skoufas (\u039d\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc\u03bb\u03b1\u03bf\u03c2 \u03a3\u039a\u03bf\u03c5\u03c6\u03ac\u03c2). It was a secret society which had the aim to organize a Greek revolution against the Turks.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Ali Pasha\u2019s rebellion against the sultan in 1820 gave the Greeks an opportunity they have been waiting for.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0On March 25<sup>th<\/sup> the bishop Germanos of Patras (\u03a0\u03b1\u03bb\u03b1\u03b9\u03cc\u03bd \u03a0\u03b1\u03c4\u03c1\u03ce\u03bd \u0393\u03b5\u03c1\u03bc\u03b1\u03bd\u03cc\u03c2) raised the Greek flag at the monastery of Agia Lavra in Peloponnese(\u03a0\u03b5\u03bb\u03bf\u03c0\u03cc\u03bd\u03bd\u03b7\u03c3\u03bf), an act that marked as the beginning of the war. The war spread out throughout Peloponnese and afterwards in many island as well.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The war lasted for 9 years until the first small part of modern Greece was liberated.\u00a0\u00a0 The struggle for the liberation of the rest of the land continued. In 1864 the Ionian islands were added to Greece. In 1881 part of Thessaly (\u0398\u03b5\u03c3\u03c3\u03b1\u03bb\u03af\u03b1). Crete Island (\u039a\u03c1\u03ae\u03c4\u03b7) and islands from the Eastern Aegean and Macedonia in 1913. After World War II the Dodecanese islands were also returned to Greece.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Our Greek ancestors fought bravely (\u03b3\u03b5\u03bd\u03b1\u03b9\u03ac) and died for their and our freedom . After many years of sacrifices (\u03b8\u03c5\u03c3\u03af\u03b5\u03c2) Greece was again free.<\/p>\n<p>In order to honor them, pupils and students dressed in the national colors (white and blue) and in traditional costumes make parades, celebrations and theatrical plays at schools.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Our national anthem (\u0395\u03b8\u03bd\u03b9\u03ba\u03cc\u03c2 \u03cd\u03bc\u03bd\u03bf\u03c2) and the flag (\u03c3\u03b7\u03bc\u03b1\u03af\u03b1) we have today , have been developed during the years of the revolution.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00ab\u0398\u03ad\u03bb\u03b5\u03b9 \u03b1\u03c1\u03b5\u03c4\u03ae\u03bd \u03ba\u03b1\u03b9 \u03c4\u03cc\u03bb\u03bc\u03b7\u03bd \u03b7 \u03b5\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03b8\u03b5\u03c1\u03af\u03b1\u00bb (Freedom takes boldness and virtue)<\/p>\n<p>(\u0391.Kalvos)<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"march 25th parade in Sparta Greece\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/X8_W_nvIPyk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<img width=\"350\" height=\"251\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2012\/03\/25-03-08_greek_independence-350x251.jpg\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image tmp-hide-img\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2012\/03\/25-03-08_greek_independence-350x251.jpg 350w, https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/20\/2012\/03\/25-03-08_greek_independence.jpg 400w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 350px) 100vw, 350px\" \/><p>\u00a0\u201cFreedom or death\u201c(\u0395\u03bb\u03b5\u03c5\u03b8\u03b5\u03c1\u03af\u03b1 \u03ae \u03b8\u03ac\u03bd\u03b1\u03c4\u03bf\u03c2). These are the first words that come in the mind of every Greek in the sound of this date. The 25th of March is both national and religious holiday for Greece. It is the date that our ancestors back in the 1821 started their revolution against the Ottoman Empire. In&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"post-item__readmore\"><a class=\"btn btn--md\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/25th-of-march-independence-day-of-greece\/\">Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":82,"featured_media":729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-728","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/82"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=728"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1584,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/728\/revisions\/1584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/greek\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}