Greek Independence Honoring the Hellenic Triumph of Liberty
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MARCH 24, 2018 Celebrating Greek Independence Honoring the Hellenic Triumph of Liberty Eugène Ferdinand Victor Delacroix Greece on the Ruins of Missolonghi (1826), Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux Delacroix produced a second painting in support of the Greeks in their war for independence, this time referring to the capture of Missolonghi by Turkish forces in 1825. Greece Expiring on the Ruins of Missolonghi displays a woman in Greek costume with her breast bared, arms half-raised in an imploring gesture before the horrible scene: the suicide of the Greeks, who chose to kill themselves and destroy their city rather than surrender to the Turks... The National Herald T H D E L N A AT ER IONAL H www.thenationalherald.com 2 Greek Independence Day THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 24, 2018 Happy and Joyous JOHN CATSIMATIDIS, Jr. Independence Day THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 24, 2018 Greek Independence Day 3 4 Greek Independence Day THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 24, 2018 THE NATIONAL HERALD, MARCH 24, 2018 Greek Independence Day 5 Celebrating Greek Independence Day By Eleni Sakellis On March 25, 1821, Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the flag of revolution over the Monastery of Agia Lavra in the Peloponnese. The cry “Freedom or death” became the motto of the revolution. The date of March 25 is also a religious holiday, the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary when the Archangel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary and told her she would be the mother of Jesus, the Son of God. The double celebration honors the Mother of God, the Theotokos, and the faith that sustained the Greek people through the hard years of Ottoman oppression and then through the brutal years of war in the fight for freedom. Very few holidays have such powerful connections in the minds and hearts of the people through faith and history. For those of us who grew up in the Greek- American community, Greek Independence Day was one of the most special days of the year not only as a religious and national holiday, but it gave us the opportunity to show our pride in our Greek heritage, language, history, and faith as we marched in the annual parade. In our country’s northern states, the weather can be trying for a parade this time of year. Cold temperatures and a little rain are not enough dampen our patriotic spirit, however. Waiting in the side streets along Fifth Avenue is probably the most nerve-wracking for the marchers in the New York parade. Once the marching starts, the parade can fly by for those marchers, waving flags and shouting, “Long live Greece!” Honoring those who fought and died for The National Herald freedom, the heroes of 1821, is an well-known, Lord Byron, had been inspired important aspect of the celebration. by his travels in Greece before 1821 to write A weekly publication of the NATIONAL HERALD, Those heroes still inspire us today with some of his most famous works. In his INC. (ΕΘΝΙΚΟΣ ΚΗΡΥΞ), reporting the news and their strength and steadfastness, their poems, he wrote movingly about the addressing the issues of paramount interest to the dedication to fight for the freedom of the struggle of the people suffering under the Greek American community of the United States of homeland in spite of the odds being oppression of the Ottoman Empire and America. against them. The lessons they have to brought wider attention to Greece and the teach us are many and timeless. One of fight for freedom. He died at Missolonghi, Publisher-Editor the most important being that the people Greece on April 19, 1824. Another perhaps Antonis H. Diamataris endure even under the worst conditions, less well-known historical figure, the their spirit is indomitable and their love German Karl von Normann-Ehrenfels, sailed Assistant to Publisher, Advertising of the homeland is profound. It is our to Greece in early 1822 with other Veta H. Diamataris Papadopoulos duty to remember those heroes and the philhellenes to help in the revolution. He Special Section Editor history that they shaped with their efforts served as chief of staff to Alexandros Eleni Sakellis as we celebrate the 197th anniversary of Mavrokordatos in the Battle of Peta on July Production Manager Greek Independence. 16, 1822, and died of his wounds a few months later at Missolonghi. Philhellene Chrysoula Karametros Theodoros Kolokotronis, Georgios committees in Europe and United States Karaiskakis, Yannis Makriyannis, raised money for the war effort and for the 37-10 30th Street, LIC, NY 11101-2614 Athanasios Diakos, Rigas Feraios, relief of its victims, including the survivors of Tel: (718) 784-5255 • Fax: (718) 472-0510 Papaflessas, Constantine Kanaris, Manto the 1822 massacre on Chios. Working e-mail: [email protected] Mavrogenous, Andreas Miaoulis, together, the dream of freedom for Greece Democritou 1 and Academias Sts, Odysseas Androutsos, and Laskarina was realized. Athens, 10671, Greece Bouboulina are among the most famous Tel: 011.30.210.3614.598 heroes of the revolution, but there were So as we celebrate Greek Independence Fax: 011.30.210.3643.776 also countless others who fought for and remember those who fought for e-mail: [email protected] freedom including the many philhellenes freedom, we say ΖΗΤΩ Η ΕΛΛΑΣ! ΖΗΤΩ Η who embraced the cause. Perhaps most 25η Μαρτίου! CosmoYannis Creates They Were Super Greeks By Penelope Karageorge drawings. “Based on the pictures, I got Just in time for Greek Independence Day, They Were Super my ideas of what the characters Greeks by artist CosmoYannis arrives like a glorious rendition of looked like and gave it my own the Greek National Anthem. This brilliant coloring book makes rendition. I got really hooked on you want to celebrate being Greek, and the heroes who fought this. I really wanted to tell the and won the revolution, from priests to Klefts, to women and war - story to kids. I made it a color - riors. Although created for kids, the book provides delights and an ing book so that kids could pick education in history for adults as well. it up and read it and know who Talking about his inspiration for Super Greeks, CosmoYannis their heroes were. The coloring says: “My grandmother used to tell me stories about the revolution. book idea just came to me. How I realized that there was less and less information about it – the can I best get this to the kids? great heroes, the great victories. The Blacks, for instance, have So that’s where I started. I had their heroes. Look at the billion-dollar film hit, Black Panther. How to boil down thousands of words to a few sentences and what made them heroes. “When I discovered the poem the kids would recite every night during the dark years of Turkish domination, I was thrilled. It’s the same poem that we would recite as kids in Greek school. ‘My little moon, my lantern, light my lamp to walk, to go to school, to learn my lessons, lessons most important, God’s things.’ I dedicated the book to the kids who were taken by the Turks and lost to their families.” CosmoYannis began to pur - sue life as an artist as soon as he could pick up a pencil. The poem recited by children during the dark days of Turkish domination came to America to “When I was a kid, I had the be recited in Greek schools. greatest fascination with comics. There were so many newspa - pers filled with cartoons. My Uncle Mike would go out and buy the papers and give me the cartoons. ‘This is the most worthwhile thing to read in the paper,’ he would say. In those days they had great comics. Dick Tracy. The Katzenjammer Kids. Lil Abner. Joe Palooka. The Phantom. Prince Valiant is still being published. “I started drawing comics myself, making my own cartoons. My grandmother had an iconostasis. At night, I would put my own comics up there and pray so hard to God to have my cartoons come to life, like in the movies. Of course they did not! I was a big fan of Walt Disney. Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck and Brer Rabbit. At the Triboro Theater, for 25 cents, an enormous amount of money, you could go and spend the entire day looking at car - toons.” After high school, CosmoYannis joined the Marine Corps. “I really loved it. I found a home in the Marine Corps.” He then studied at Radford College, initially planning to be an art teacher, but changed his mind. He did a number of things, always coming back to art. For twenty years, he created a cartoon page every month for the popular magazine High Times. Artist CosmoYannis created They Were Super Greeks, a coloring They Were Super Greeks is sold at the Holy Trinity Cathedral book offering an inspiring history of the heroes of the Greek Fellowship Bookstore in Manhattan. Now CosmoYannis says he Revolution. would be happy if a major publisher would take it on for wider distribution. “It would be wonderful if it could reach many more youngsters.” about the Greeks? Charles Connant, manager of the Cathedral Fellowship Book - “I went to the library on 42nd Street. For over a month, I would store, says of They Were Super Greeks: “A publisher would be walk up there every day from my house on the lower East Side – I doing himself and the entire Greek community a huge favor by like to walk – and take notes about the revolution. I don’t know publishing this gem of a book. It’s historically valid and wonderfully how many notes! Too much! Too much! I had to consolidate what entertaining, for grown-ups as well as kids.