Chios Island is one of the larger islands in the Aegean Sea. When you arrive here, everything seems calm and peaceful. There are palm trees everywhere, locals sitting in cafes enjoying the sun, and lots of small fishing boats out on the ocean. The air is just full of laughter and happiness. If you look at it like that, nothing could ever disturb this peace. But as we all know, almost every positive side has a dark story. In this case, it all started with a revolution and the will to fight for freedom.
To better understand why the long-awaited independence marks such an important milestone, the following paragraph gives you some background knowledge to the history of Chios:
For nearly 400 years, Greece lived under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. Since the island of Chios is situated only around seven kilometers away from the Turkish mainland (historically “Asia Minor”) and has been prominent in trade for thousands of years, it was of great value to the Ottoman Empire. Especially the mastic plant, which can only be harvested on Chios island, gave the Chians importance, resulting in the Ottoman Empire allowing Chios almost complete control over its affairs. Their relationship was heading in the right direction, until it wasn’t. With the start of the Greek War of Independence (1821), more and more Greeks gathered the strength to fight the Ottoman Empire. A troop of armed revolutionaries from Samos island landed on Chios in March 1822 to encourage its inhabitants to join the Greek revolution and fight for freedom. When the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire got wind of this conspiracy, he was infuriated and turned on the island by sending a Turkish fleet to Chios. The order was to destroy the island and kill its inhabitants. This devastating incident, known as the Massacre of Chios, left the island and its remaining people with nothing but themselves. Even the surviving native Konstantinos Kanaris’ desperate cry for vengeance and justice in the form of an attack on the Turks two months later couldn’t mend what had already been broken so brutally. When the Greek War of Independence ended, Chios was not included in the Hellenic State and remained under Ottoman rule. It wasn’t until 1912 that Chios finally joined independent Greece and became one with its motherland.
Being a volunteer on this island gives you a better insight into the events that happened in the past and everything that comes with them. After reading the outline of Chios’ independence story, I’d like to tell you about how I got to experience this historic event firsthand and how it is commemorated today.
For children of primary school age, history and dry facts are not the most interesting things in their lives. It’s hard to remember information about events that happened hundreds of years ago, let alone understand them. For this particular day, however, it was different. The children of my school were eager to learn more about it and to actively take part in telling others the story of what happened. During the week of Independence Day, each school day was filled with new information about Chios’ history, giving me a perfect chance to gain more knowledge on the island that I’ve been living on for a few months now. In my school, it all started on a Tuesday, three days before the big day. To make the flood of information more fun for the younger children, my primary school and the 3rd primary school of Vrontados decided to go on an excursion to the P.E.K.E.V., a local movie theater, to watch a movie on the Massacre of Chios. This trip came to me as a surprise, but when I was told to gather all of the children from my class, I was more than happy to put their jackets on and get their water bottles.
Once everyone was ready to go, we made our way out of the school and to the movie theater. When we arrived there, the chaos started. We took four classes to the theater: the grade one’s, who were trying to run through all the rows as fast as possible and find the best hiding spot; the grade two’s, who started sprinting inside as soon as we arrived at the entrance to get the best seats; and the grade fours and fives, too cool to hang out with the younger children but screaming across the whole theater to find their friends. When the first excitement was over, the grades of the other primary school arrived. The theater was slowly getting crowded, and voices were filling the air. That was too much for one of the boys in my class. Loud noise and the dark makes him anxious and he ran outside, trying to escape the situation. When we decided to give it a second shot and opened the doors to the theater, we were just in time to catch the last part of the movie. I didn’t see a lot of it, but what I saw was impressive. The movie showed the lives of the inhabitants before the Massacre of Chios, the incident itself, and the impact it had on the island and its people. The children loved it and didn’t stop talking about it on the way back to school. I was grateful for the opportunity to see the film because it gave me a good first impression of this historical event, as well as background information. Since Independence Day is a holiday, we had to celebrate this special day in school on November 10th, 2022. After the prayer in the morning, the whole school gathered in the library to watch the play that the third grade had been practicing for a few weeks. Each of the children was dressed in traditional Chian clothing, acting out the life of the people on their long road to independence.
Before I went home that day, everyone in school told me about the big parade that was going to take place in the city, apparently much bigger than the other parades that I’d seen so far. I didn’t think that was possible, but when I came home from the parade the day after, I knew what they were talking about; the city was filled with happy faces, loud music, and colorful dresses. Hundreds of people participated in the parade, from the scouts to members of the Greek armed forces and to traditional folk dance clubs; everything and everyone was represented. The parade lasted for over an hour, but little did we know that the celebrations were far from over. Once everyone had walked past the main stage and arrived at the end of the route, the members of the traditional dance clubs slowly made their way to the main square. The square was full of life; there were cotton candy machines, people selling popcorn, and balloons given to children. Before we even knew it, we were right in the middle of it. A band was playing traditional music, and after a few minutes, the members of the dance clubs lined up in their formations, getting ready to dance. At least 10 clubs spread out around the fountain in the middle of the square, each wearing beautiful traditional clothing. When they all started dancing, I didn’t even know where to look. Seeing so many people dance traditional Greek dances to Greek music in front of the beautiful park with giant palm trees and the mountains in the back felt more than surreal. Some of the small children formed their own little dance circles and tried to keep up with the dancers. Soon the music was accompanied by clapping, cheering, laughter, and big smiles.
We stayed at the square until there was almost no one left. Most people had already made their way to the numerous cafes and restaurants in the city to round up the celebrations by having lunch with family and friends. This was exactly what we had in mind too, but instead of staying in the city, we went back home to Daskalopetra, the beach closest to our house, and ate crepes and drank hot chocolate in one of the cafes there. We were the only people inside, but the contrast from the loud life in the city to just us sitting in a cafe was the perfect time to reflect on what we had just seen and laugh about how, even though we were in the front row, a woman came and stood too close to our faces, blocking the view or how the horse pooped right in front of the podium with all the important people on it.
I enjoyed every second and was more than grateful to experience this special and beautiful day with the people I now call my family. It reminded me of how lucky I am to be here and what strength and courage it took for the people of Chios to fight for their homes and their families. This day, the 11th of November, will be remembered as the day on which the hard and painful struggle for freedom finally showed its results and the suffering came to an end.
When I now think back on Independence Day and what independence means, I realize that it’s not so much about the outcome but more about the road leading to this event. In some way or another, if you want to receive a positive thing, you have to pay the price. It doesn’t matter how high the price is; maybe it is hardly anything, but it is still important to acknowledge the efforts that are being made, recognize its strength, not take anything for granted, and cherish every single moment.
Sources:
https://www.greeka.com/eastern-aegean/chios/history/chios-massacre/ (Editors of Greeka, February 17th, 2023)
