Every 25th of March Greeks celebrate the start of revolution against the Ottoman Empire‘s nearly 400-year occupation, as well as the Annunciation, a very important religious holiday, celebrating the day that Gabriel brought news to Mary that she is bearing the Christ.

On this day the Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the Greek flag at the monastery of Agias Lavras (at Peloponnese) in 1821 and declared the “Ελευθερία ή Θάνατος” (Freedom or Death), the start of the revolution.

The fierce fight for independence continuoued for eight years until 1829 when the Treaty of Andrianople was signed.

How it is celebrated:

• The Independence Day is commemorated with a military parade, as well as a school parade the day before.
• The Annunciation, the religious holiday, is commemorated with services at the churches and other festivities, especially at the churches and monasteries named Evangelismos or Evangelistria, and on the islands of Tinos and Hydra.
• Parades in the celebration of the Independence Day are organized all over the world as well, wherever there are bigger Greek communities.

The Military Parade

I have visited the military parade.

I have never been to one before and I thought it would be an interesting experience.

The weather was warm, but cloudy. When we (I was accompanied by my boyfriend this time) arrived at the Amalias Avenue in the centre of Athens, where the parade was taking place, the gathered crowd was much bigger compared to the one at the school parade a day before.

It was impossible to find a place at the edge of the road, there were already rows of three of even four people! Lessons learned: if you would like to see the parade, go early!

Due to my position it was really hard to take framed pictures, I had to experiment by lifting my camera above my head and doing some “street-style photography”. Many times I tried to stand on my toes and by the end of the parade my hands and feet felt very tired! Maybe I should have brought a leader or something.. I wonder if they would allow it.

I am still not sure whether I liked the parade or not.

It was nice watching the soldiers and especially the presidential guard marching down the road. But the tanks and weapons?

I guess I have always “thought” I don’t like weapons, but now I have really “felt” I don’t like them.

Seeing them passing by, I got the cold chills all over my body of memories of childhood, when they were showing on the news a tank burning not far away from my home town. Horrible feelings!

I really hope that all that expensive machinery will rust unused in military bases around the country.

Anyway, I know some of you (especially men) will enjoy the sight of tanks and other “gadgets”, so here are some pictures I took:

Use arrow keys on your keyboard to move to the next image!

Note that all images are copyrighted. Please respect that. If you would like to use images in any way, contact me.

When I was choosing the photos, many times I have thought that they would look better in black and white. Here is one:

I got filled with emotions again so I stopped.

Traditional food

After the parade we received a call and were invited for a simple, yet very tasteful meal of traditional food μπακαλιαρος and σκορδαλια, of course served with salad and wine.

Μπακαλιαρος (or mpakaliaros, reading “bakaliaros”) is a big fried salt cod, seen on the picture below.

Σκορδαλια (or skordalia) is a traditional garlic cream souce (sorry, forgot to take the picture of that).

Yummy! : )