Καλήμερα σας!
I was spending the morning learning Greek, when I realised today is Greece's Independence Day! How exciting!
Independence day celebrates the Greek declaration of independence from the Ottoman Empire on March 25th 1821. It signalled the start of their war of independence which they eventually won.
Apparently*, it was then that Ελευθερία ή θάνατος became Greece's motto. It literally means freedom or death, and was their rallying cry as the country rose up to fight against oppression and tyranny. The nine stripes on the modern Greek flag are representative of the nine syllables of the motto.
This is all lot more interesting than the vocab I've been learning this morning. Even thought the sense of satisfaction of completing another list on BYKI is pretty good, when the most exciting word you've learnt is "airport" (το αεροδρόμιο), most other things are way more interesting.
Here is a picture to celebrate:
*from what Wikipedia tells me...
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2 comments:
That painting offers us another brilliant example of the separation of church and state :)
Only there was no state in occupied Greece in 1821, so your comment is void. If it wasn't for the unity offered by the church during the 400 years of Turkish oppression and ensalvement of the Greeks, there would be no Greek independence.
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