26th October. The feast of St. Demetrius and the 113th anniversary of the retaking of Thessaloniki from the Turks. It’s not a national holiday but it is a quasi-public holiday in our co-capital. As today is a Sunday, the schools are closed tomorrow, and again on Tuesday for Greece’s second National Day, Όχι Μέρα. In the 28 years between Thessaloniki’s liberation and the Italian invasion of October 1940, Greece endured WWI during which the country was split between a pro-German king in Athens and a pro UK/French provisional government under Venizelos in the north. Only five years later, Greece’s most calamitous event of the 20th century occurred – the Asia Minor disaster. Instead of just consolidating its grip on the European side of the Bosphorus, Greek forces embarked on a disastrous campaign in Asian Turkey, moving eastwards from Smyrna into the Turkish hinterland where they were routed. The Christian population was either massacred or expelled, Smyrna was torched, and within a year Greece’s population increased by about 30 or 40%. The north of Greece faced a double refugee crisis, internal and external. Following the great fire of 1917, Salonika’s Jewish population were accommodated in camps. Incomers from Asia Minor comprised the second group. Of course, priority was given to the external refugees, the Jews stewing in camps until the Germans shipped them off to Poland in 1943.
Today is both a religious and military celebration. A flag was hoisted atop the White Tower, and it is claimed that it is the very same flag raised by victorious Greeks in 1912. At the same time a religious service was held in St. Demetrius cathedral church. It was on this day four years ago that people infected each other by kissing the icon during peak Covid. The festivities began yesterday with a procession of the icon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfanxAZ6ynw
Despite Dimitri being one of the most common male first names in Greece, I can’t think of anyone to whom I’m close enough to extend name day greetings. There is, of course, my upstairs neighbour, but I’d rather curse the fucker to eternal pain in hell. Then again, he might already be in a living hell given the crazy bitch he lives with. I don’t like using the word ‘bitch’, but I hate the pair of them. So much for Christian charity. I wouldn’t piss on them if they were on were on fire.
Roll on Tuesday. It is strictly a national day without the same level of religious symbolism as 26th October or 25th March (the feast of the Annunciation, and the start of the 1821 rebellion against the Turks). Not that I am in any position to criticise; the Irish Rebellion started on Easter Monday, 1916.
Unfortunately, I have to conclude by reporting yet another femicide. This time in Trikala where an 18-year-old strangled his 54-year-old mother with a towel. I wonder if these fuckers get some matricidal advice from some dark web equivalent of the Citizens’ Advice Bureau. In most cases, on completion of the act, they call the police and wait to be arrested. It seems they know that by not going on the run, they are more likely to get a reduced sentence. https://www.voria.gr/article/sok-sta-trikala-18hronos-epnixe-me-petseta-ti-mitera-toy-tilefonise-o-idios-stin-astynomia