The 25th of March

The 25th of March is a very important holiday in Greece. Therefore, I will explain it to you, so that you know why you'll be having this day off. This is both a national and a religious holiday, which makes it even more important.

The national holiday is about the 25thof March 1821. This is known as the Greek Revolution or Revolution of 1821. It represents the beginning of the Greeks' rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in order to liberate the nation from the Ottomans who ruled them and create an independent state. The phrase that has marked this revolution was “Freedom or Death”. From 1838 on, the 25thof March is the date when we celebrate the beginning of the revolution and it is a public holiday. Same as the 28thof October, children have celebrations at their schools and there is also a parade, just like the one I wrote about when referring to the 28/10.

As far as the religious holiday is concerned, on the 25thof March we celebrate the Annunciation. In Greek, the word is “Evangelismos” which means announcing good news. This is also the name day of people called “Evangelos” or “Evangelia”.

The 25thof March, we usually eat cod served with a special garlic sauce, which we call: skordalia. This is sort of a tradition that goes a long way. As I have mentioned, 40 days before Easter, the religion doesn't allow us to eat meat. Nowadays, some eat fish instead of meat, but during the past, that people followed religion more strictly, they could only eat fish two days during the 40day period: the Annunciation and a Sunday called Palm Sunday. In the greek mountains, though, an easy and cheap solution was salted cod. Soon, this became a tradition and now most families prepare this meal to celebrate the 25thof March.