Every year Greek Diaspora and Greece celebrate their national day on March 25th. This day commemorates the start of the War of Independence fought against the Ottoman Empire.
On March 25, 2021, Greece will commemorate the 200th anniversary of its great national day.
This bicentennial will be celebrated with great pomp and ceremony not only in Greece but in Greek communities of the diaspora around the world.
Tragically, Greece missed out on celebrating the centennial of this historic event in 1921 due to the conflict in Asia Minor against Turkey.
Most countries mark their national day as the end of their revolution or the termination of hostilities after their war of independence. But that is not the case for Greece.
The principal reason why Greece embraces the start of its war of independence as its national day is because historians are unanimous in pinpointing that actual day. Nevertheless, they cannot agree on the exact year that Greece actually achieved its independence.
In effect, the war of independence lasted over a decade and territorial victories were achieved over a protracted timeline.
“Freedom or death!”
The Greek War of Independence began in 1821 with the rebellion of the Greeks who had been under the rule of the Ottoman Empire since 1453.
The Greek revolution itself started on March 25, 1821, with patriots uttering the slogan “Eleftheria I thanatos!” meaning “Freedom or death.”
This was, of course, a modern twist on the Ancient Spartan dictum that required Spartan warriors to return home either victorious — or dead and carried upon their shields.
Modern Greece can be described as a small country, with an inquiring mind, an independent spirit, and a global outreach.
Its sparse population of slightly more than 10 million inhabitants who live in the contemporary state of Greece is deceptive in many ways, regarding the vast impact that Greeks and Greek culture have made, and continue to make, in the world.
The global outreach of Greek Diaspora
Census reports from around the globe estimate that the Greek diaspora, which includes first-generation immigrants, and those of the second or third generation with Greek ancestry who were not born in Greece, is approximately 7 million.
The Greek mindset, yet, has always embraced a peripatetic nature and a global outreach. This explains the existence of Greek communities in every corner of the world.
The unsettled, adventurous nature of Greeks has been a hallmark of their character since time immemorial.
Even in ancient Greece, Homer recorded that Greeks had long been wanderers and travelers venturing through foreign seas and lands, motivated by trade, science, intellectual curiosity, poverty, or war, and in consequence creating colonies and cities far and wide.
The oldest and largest diaspora
As a result, the Greek diaspora became one of the oldest and largest on the entire planet.
Currently, the Greek diaspora can be found in every single corner of the world, with significant numbers in the United States, Australia, Canada, Brazil, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Argentina, Germany, Italy, Armenia, and South Africa.
The biggest contemporary concentrations of the Greek diaspora are in the USA, Canada, and Australia.
The city with the single largest Greek community outside of Greece is on the other side of the world, in Melbourne, Australia.
On every occasion that I visited Melbourne, I was pleasantly surprised to hear Greek being spoken everywhere I went. It forced me to do a double-take to make sure that my plane had landed in Australia and not in Greece.
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