You know how sometimes people say, “The more often you see something, the more used to it you get?” In a lot of cases, this statement is true. It seems like you already know what is going to happen because you have already experienced something similar before.
However, for me, it is different. I do not think that it matters how often you have already seen something; it can still be just as exciting and new as the first time.
Because of this mindset, I was very excited to experience another big celebration on Chios Island, the place where I have been living for about half a year now.
The first celebrations that I got to attend were at the end of October. We celebrated Όχι-Day, the day on which the Greeks said “no” and proudly stood up for themselves.
It did not take long until we were lucky enough to celebrate another important day in the history of the island: the Independence Day of Chios.
After already attending those two big historical events, I thought I had an idea of what to expect for the 25th of March, the Independence Day of Greece. Nevertheless, as the two times before, this day exceeded my expectations by far.
Other than in most countries, the Independence Day of Greece marks the beginning of the War of Independence, not the day that it ended.
On March 25th, 1821, the Greeks long road to finally fulfilling their wish of breaking free from the Ottoman Empire began. They had been part of the Ottoman Empire since 1453, and when the Bishop of Patras raised the flag of revolution over a monastery in the Peloponnese, the Greeks gathered all their strength and started fighting for freedom. The motto of the revolution was “Freedom or death.”
The revolution was off to a good start, but by 1827, the Turks had recaptured most of the Greek islands and Athens.
Just when it seemed almost impossible to win the revolution, Greece was offered help by European countries, and with their forces, the War of Independence was turned back in favor of the Greeks.
As a result, in 1829, an independent Greek state was finally established and the goal of freedom was achieved.
Although historic events like these can be difficult for young children to understand, we celebrated the Independence Day of Greece at the local primary school that I work at.
I am mostly in the first grade, and while thinking of fitting decorations for our classroom, my teacher had the idea for me to make a Greek man out of paper, dressed in traditional Greek clothing. I handcrafted the single parts of the man and the clothing, and then, together with the children, we glued the pieces together for the final result. The man was about the same height as the children, and after hanging it up in the classroom, they were amazed by it, and every time they saw him, they were reminded of what this special day is all about.
Since the 25th of March fell on a Saturday, we had the celebrations in school on Friday. As we already did for the other celebrations, one grade from the school prepared a school play to present it to the whole school as well as to their parents. This time, it was the sixth grade’s turn.
Their play showed a school lesson. One of the girls played the teacher, and the others were her students. The girls and boys wore traditional Chian clothing, in which they told the story about how Greece gained freedom. After the play was done, we all went outside to play, and some of the children from my grade excitedly showed me the dances that they were going to dance the next day and had been practicing for weeks.
On Saturday morning, March 25, 2023, it was finally time for the parades.
I was especially excited for the parade in Vrontados since this was the one in which the local primary schools and the high school walked, accompanied by local dance clubs. I knew that some of the children from my grade were taking part in the parade and waited for them to pass me. The marching band from the high school walked past us, followed by each school, which was represented by two grades. When some of the children recognized me, they happily waved at me, which made me feel like I was part of it and not just an outsider watching them. After the parade was over, the crowd made their way to the place in front of the sailor to watch the dances. This time, the scouts also gathered in a circle, and two girls from my class got honored and were officially introduced as members of the scouts.
When the celebrations in Vrontados were over, we took a taxi to watch the big parade in the city. Although we missed the first part of it, it was still very impressive to see the armed forces, sports clubs, and scouts making their way to the main square. As soon as the parade was over, almost everyone walked towards the harbor, and the restaurants and cafes were filled with families and friends to celebrate this day. We also wanted to do something special, and after getting ice cream, we walked home along the ocean and spent the rest of the day at the beach. For us, this was the perfect way to end the day that marks such an important milestone in the history of Greece.
The 25th of March is a day no one in Greece will ever forget and commemorating the bravery of the Greeks in their fight for freedom is something special that I am very grateful to have experienced.
Being part of the celebrations here in more than one way is the reason why, even though I might have seen it multiple times, it still seems new and makes me very excited for whatever will come next.
