Greece celebrated its national holiday – Independence Day – on Wednesday with a number of events in Athens and other cities across the country. The celebrations on March 25th mark the 205th anniversary of the start of the Greek Revolution of 1821. This year, the day is doubly symbolic because it coincides with the Christian holiday of the Annunciation.
At 8:00 a.m. (local and Bulgarian time), a flag-raising ceremony was held on the Acropolis, marking the symbolic start of the day’s events, Greek public broadcaster ERT reported. A 21-gun ceremonial salute from an artillery battery on Lycabettus Hill was performed and military bands performed the national anthem on the central streets of Athens.
The culmination of the holiday in the capital was a military parade that passed in front of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the presence of the country’s President Konstantinos Tasoulas, officials and citizens. The celebrations ended with a ceremony on the Acropolis, also accompanied by a 21-gun salute from the Lycabettus Battery.
Celebrations also took place in the rest of the country. Only on the island of Crete, planned parades were canceled due to the forecast of bad weather with heavy rainfall in the afternoon, Sky TV reported.
/RY/