“Better a single hour that is free, then forty years of slavery and prison.”
These are the words of a Nikos Ksilouris song for the Greek Independence Day, a national holiday celebrated on the 25th of March. Not only at this day the Greek people are commemorating the start of the independence war against the Ottoman Empire in 1821, but the 25th of March is one of the most important days for the Greek Orthodox Church: it coincides with the feast of Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. The blue and white flag raised against Turkish occupation is the symbol of the fight for freedom and the golden cross, standing on the left, shows devotion for the Orthodox Church, that helped the Greek people not to lose their cultural identity under the Ottoman Empire.
On the 23rd of March the children in the kindergarten in Nenita made their own small Greek Independence Day celebration. Already in the week before they prepared the celebration during their lessons. So also we volunteers had the chance to get to know more about this spacial day.
In the lessons the children learned about the historical dates by watching pictures and reading a children book, and they talked about the traditional costumes. Furthermore, they learned different songs which they really liked and sang with a lot of power. Also, they danced in one lesson. Because of the Greek flag is a very important symbol at the Independence Day all children crafted together with us volunteers small paper flags and showed them proud during the celebration. Of course, they also practised their counting and writing skills during the week, and we helped them for example to spell the names of some important Greek military leaders and painted boats.
On Friday the Greek flag decorated again our group room. Because it should be a special day, all children were wearing their best clothes. After the “Good Morning” ritual the children presented their well learned poems and got of course a lot of applause for it. Also, we were singing different traditional songs and the children liked to clap their hands and throw their arms in the air. We finished the celebration by standing up and singing the Greek national hymn. Afterwards all children got their Greek flag to take it home because they will need it again on Sunday. Even though they will not participate in a big parade like in Chios City, they will go to the church together at the 25th of March.
To see all the pictures go into our gallery!
