08 July, 2009
 Greece is located at the southernmost tip of Europe and has one of the most unique geographic formations of any country in Europe. Including the islands, it has an area of 50,959 square miles and a population of 10.2 million (1991 census). An estimated five million Greeks live abroad.
Greece is washed on three sides by seas: by the Ionian Sea to the west, the Aegean Sea to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. To the north lie Albania, former Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. To the northeast is Turkey.
At the crossroads of three continents, Greece is a stepping-stone to Asia and Africa. Some four-fifths of Greece's land territory is mountainous. Its coastline, with its many gulfs and inlets, is one of the longest of any country in Europe.
The main geographic divisions of Greece are (1) the northern region which includes Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace; (2) Central Greece and Thessaly; (3) the Peloponnese which is separated from the mainland by the Corinth Canal; and (4) the islands of the Aegean Sea to the east of the mainland, the Ionian islands to the west, and Crete, the largest Greek island, to the south.
The highest mountain in Greece is Mount Olympus (9,754 ft.), seat of the gods of Greek mythology. Mount Parnassus (7,066 ft.) has on its lower slope the ancient site of Delphi, once dedicated to the god Apollo and famous for its oracle. On the peninsula of Chalkidiki, located in the north-east, is Mount Athos, where a number of monasteries of the Greek Orthodox Church form, as they have for centuries, an autonomous monastic community.
The largest city and capital of Greece is Athens, with a population of over three million. The second largest city, Thessaloniki, with nearly one million inhabitants, is located in northern Greece and is an important seaport, cultural and business centre. Other large cities include Piraeus, the main port of Greece, Patras, Volos, Larissa and Iraklion.
The seas adjoining Greece are studded with thousands of islands, islets and rocks, accounting for 8,919 square miles of Greece's total area. Famous among the islands of the Aegean are Crete; Cos, where Hippocrates, the father of medicine, was born; Patmos, where St. John wrote the Book of Revelation; Rhodes, Myconos, Hydra. Corfu is the best known of the Ionian islands.
None of Greece's rivers is navigable. They include Aliakmon, Axios, Strymon, and the Evros which forms the frontier between Greece and Turkey. The lakes of Kastoria, Ioannina and Prespa are the largest in Greece.
The climate of Greece is temperate Mediterranean. In general, summers are hot and dry, while winters, in most parts of the country, are mild. Most of the rain comes in autumn and winter.
 Greece, also known as Hellas, is the birthplace of democracy. Greece's democratic ideals inspired among others the fathers of the U.S. Constitution. Its history stretches back almost 4,000 years to a time when the people who inhabited the island of Crete had developed a notable civilization known as Minoan.
The people of the mainland, called Hellenes or Greeks, were influenced by the Minoan civilization and developed it further. They organized great naval and military expeditions, and explored the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, reaching as far as the Caucasus Mountains. One of those expeditions, the siege of Troy, is narrated in the first great European literary work, Homer's Iliad. During these expeditions Greek settlements were founded throughout the Mediterranean, Asia Minor and the coast of North Africa.
 During the Classical period (5th century B.C.), Greece was composed of city-states, the largest being Athens, Sparta and Thebes. A fierce spirit of independence and love of freedom enabled the Greeks to defeat the Persians in battles which influenced the history of civilization Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis and Plataea.
In the second half of the 4th century B.C., the Greeks, led by Alexander the Great, conquered most of the then known world. Alexander, however, did not enslave the nations he conquered but sought to Hellenize them. In 146 B.C. Greece fell to the Romans.
In 330 A.D. Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople, setting the foundations of the Byzantine Empire . Byzantium soon became purely Greek. It transformed the precious heritage of ancient Greece into a vehicle for the new Christian civilization which slowly spread to Western Europe.
The Byzantine Empire fell to the Turks in 1453 and the Greeks remained under the Ottoman yoke for nearly 400 years. During this time, their language, their religion and their national conscience defied extinction.
On March 25, 1821, the Greeks revolted against the Turks, and by 1828 had won their independence. As the new state comprised only a tiny fraction of the country, the struggle for the liberation of all the lands inhabited by Greeks continued. In 1864, the Ionian islands were ceded to Greece; in 1881 parts of Epirus and Thessaly. Crete, the islands of the Eastern Aegean and Macedonia were added in 1913 and Western Thrace in 1919. After World War II the Dodecanese islands were also returned to Greece. During World War II Greece fought heroically against Facsism and Nazism alongside the Allies. Greece has been a member of the European Union since 1981.
The 1975 Constitution defines the country's political system as a parliamentary republic headed by the President of the Republic, who is elected by the Parliament every five years. Popular sovereignty is the foundation of government.
The government as a whole and its members must enjoy the confidence of the Parliament (Vouli) which consists of only one House with 300 members.
A new Parliament is elected every four years by popular vote. The leader of the majority party becomes the Prime Minister who forms a government which wields the real political power in Greece. The judiciary is independent.
Ninety-eight percent of the people adhere to the Greek Orthodox faith.
Freedom of religion is guaranteed by the Constitution, and other religious groups, such as Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Moslems, have their own places of worship.
 The National Flag of Greece consists of four white and five blue alternating horizontal stripes, with a white cross on the upper inner corner. Blue and white are the national colors of Greece, blue symbolizing the sky and seas, white denoting the purity of the struggle for Greek independence in 1821. The cross on the flag is that of the Christian religion.
Modern Greek derives from the same idiom used by Homer and other famous Greek writers and poets more than 3000 years ago. Greek was the language of the Gospels and has made a major contribution to all western languages.
By Dionysios Solomos (1823) Music by Nikos Mantzaros. 
English translation by Rudyard Kipling
We know thee of old
Oh divinely restored,
By the light of thine eyes
And the light of thy sword.
From the graves of our slain
Shall the valor prevail
As we greet thee,
As we greet thee again,
Hail, Liberty! Oh, Hail!
 Greek families have always placed a high value on education which is the right of every citizen, provided free by the Greek State from kindergarten to the university level, including tuition and textbooks. The years of compulsory education cannot be less than nine, which include six years of primary education and three years of secondary education (Gymnasium).
After graduating from the Gymnasium, students continue with a three year course in the Lyceum which prepares them for higher education. There are 17 State universities, schools of higher education and technical colleges.
Admission to universities is determined by competitive examinations held simultaneously throughout Greece.
Children must attend school from the ages of six to 15, five days a week, from approximately 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. Summer vacation runs from end of June to mid-September.
Since January 1, 2002, Greece, along with eleven of its European Union partners, has adopted the Euro as its new currency, replacing its centuries-old currency, the drachma.
The main agricultural products of Greece are cereals, vegetables, tobacco, currants, olives and olive oil, citrus fruit, grapes, almonds, figs, rice and cotton. Livestock farming is mainly limited to goats and sheep, since there is little pasture land for cattle raising.
Shipping is an important Greek industry, with the largest Greek owned merchant shipping fleet in the world. Fishing, sponge-fishing and handicrafts are important occupations in many Greek islands.
Tourism is another leading service of national income. Industrial production has become, in the last few years, one of the most important contributors to the national income.
The biggest increases in output in recent years were recorded in the basic metal industries (aluminium, nickel and steel), rubber and plastics, chemicals, petroleum products, electric machinery and textiles.
Trees include white poplars, spearheaded cypresses, chestnut, pine, fir and olive. Of special beauty are the cultivated and wild flowers of Greece, many of which are mentioned in classical poetry and mythology, such as evosmon, anemone, violets, tulips, peonies, narcissus, parthenium, primrose and camomile.
Wild animals indigenous to Greece include boar, bear, wild cat, brown squirrel, jackal, fox, deer, and wolf. A rare white goat is found in Crete. There are 358 species of birds in Greece, two-thirds of them migratory. Among the birds of prey are the golden and imperial eagle, the vulture, and several species of falcons. Other indigenous varieties of birds are the hawk, owl, pelican, pheasant, partridge, woodcock and nightingale.
Some 246 species of fish have been identified. Squid, octopus, red mullet, lobster, prawn, shrimp, crab, oyster, mussel, and cockle are found in great quantity. River fish are rare. Dolphins, so familiar in the legends and sculpture of antiquity, are often seen leaping close to shore. The island of Zakynthos is home to the giant loggerhead turtle caretta-caretta.
 Olympia was the home of the ancient Olympic Games which, according to tradition, were established by Hercules himself with the Olympian gods as the first competitors.
We do indeed know that games were held at Olympia (which lies in the northwestern Peloponnese and was named after the highest mountain in Greece, Mt. Olympus), from the 9th century B.C. Later it was decided that the games should be repeated every four years from June until September. According to historical records, the first Olympic Games were held in 776 B.C. In 676 B.C. the games took on a panhellenic significance, and by 576 B.C. the prestige surrounding the institution had reached its peak.
Special messengers would set off in every direction to announce the beginning of the sacred truce and the suspension of all disputes and warfare among the city-states. The largest cities were represented by official ambassadors to Olympia, the "theoroi". The contests lasted five days, from the 12th to the 16th of each month, and included a great variety of events. Competitions testing endurance and strength had almost exclusively formed the earliest Olympic program. The list was soon expanded to include contests typical of the whole Hellenic world. As early as the 25th Olympiad, the four-horse chariot race was added. This was a recognition of the element of popular spectacle as distinct from individual athletic competition. Horse races were added later.
These events took place in the hippodrome, while the athletic contests were held in the stadium. Wrestling and boxing were combined in the pankration; jumping, discus-throwing, javelin-throwing, running and wrestling in the pentathlon.
The victors of the games were honored among all Greeks. Memorials were erected in their honor and they were praised in poems and songs. The victorious competitors received no trophies or medals. The symbol of supreme honor was the olive wreath placed on their heads. According to legend, some cities tore down sections of their walls to let their victorious athletes pass through, to signify that with such men they needed no fortifications.
The statues of the most illustrious victors stood in the sacred area of the Altis, as the entire sanctuary of Olympia with its temples and other buildings was known.
However, the importance of the Olympics and of the other great festivals was greater than the individual honors paid to the athletes who competed. In addition to inspiring succeeding generations to pursue competitive sports, they also contributed to a sense of unity between the Greek city-states of that time a contribution best measured by the fact that no wars were ever waged in during the games.
For a thousand years the games were held at regular intervals of four years. Tradition and imagination made it possible for the games to continue well after Olympia lost its glory. When the Romans conquered Greece in the second century B.C., the decline of the sanctuary had already begun, although the Caesars Hadrian and Herodus Atticus did succeed later in restoring some of its prestige.
The advent of Christianity inspired radical social and religious reforms, and soon the old monuments of Olympia were being used to build a castle. Still, the games continued until A.D. 393, when the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius I banned them by decree.
In A.D. 426, Theodosius II ordered the total destruction of the sanctuary's temples. The Goths delivered the final blow by destroying everything that could not be carried away.
In the following centuries, the river Kladeos covered the sacred land with sand and pebbles. It was not until 1875, that archaeologists brought it back to light and re-discovered ancient Olympia.
 The modern revival of the Olympic Games is owed to the Barron Pierre de Coubertin (1863-1937) who, on January 1894, in a letter to the athletic organizations of every country, pointed out the educational value of sports to modern man, if practiced in accordance with the ideals of ancient Greece.
Since the Olympic revival, the Greek athletes always lead the parade that marks the opening of the games preceded by the lighting of the Olympic torch.
The first modern Olympic Games were held in Athens in 1896.
The flame that is used to light the torch comes from the sacred site of Olympia, where it is lit from the sun's rays and then carried by a relay of runners to the city where the games are being held.
The first modern games took place in Athens, in 1896. Many of the original Olympic contests were retained, with new events added.
One of the original events still contested is the Marathon race, commemorating the feat of the unknown Athenian warrior who, in 490 B.C., ran in full armor from the battlefield of Marathon to Athens, to bring the news that the invading Persians had been defeated. He could only utter the words "Rejoice, we are victorious" before falling dead from exhaustion. This event is now regarded as the pinnacle of the Olympic Games. The present distance of the race is 26 miles, 385 yards or 42.2kms, the distance between Marathon and Athens. The first Olympic Marathon in 1896 was won by a Greek runner, Spyros Louis, in 2 hours, 58 minutes and 50 seconds.
Since their revival in Athens in 1896, the Olympic Games have been celebrated every fourth year, except for interruptions caused by World Wars. Athens will organize the Olympic Games of 2004.
For centuries before the birth of Christ, the ancient Greeks worshiped the gods and goddesses who were said to live on Mount Olympus. These twelve were the most important:
Zeus: king of the gods who ruled over the world and the deities. He punished those who violated the laws and was accompanied by an eagle carrying his thunderbolts.
Hera: wife of Zeus and Queen of Olympus. Protectress of women and marriage.
Poseidon: god of the sea, rivers and springs, wielding the power of storms and winds and over the fate of sailors and ships.
Demeter: sister of Zeus and mother of Persephone, Queen of Hades. She was goddess of sewing and the harvest.
Hestia: elder sister of Zeus. As goddess of the hearth she was the protecting divinity of the home and family life.
Ares: god of war who fought for the sheer love of fighting and had none of the gentle qualities of the other gods.
Hephaestus: god of fire and volcanoes who was the blacksmith of the gods and builder of their palaces and weapons.
Aphrodite: goddess of beauty and love. Her symbols were the dove, ram, dolphin, swan, tortoise and the rose.
Athena: goddess of wisdom, and of war and peace. As Zeus's favorite daughter she shared power over storms and lightning. Athens, Greece's capital, bears her name.
Apollo: the sun god personified both the mental illumination and the physical phenomenon of light. He was also the god of music and song.
Artemis: Zeus's daughter and the twin sister of Apollo was goddess of the forest and the hunt and often danced with the Nymphs of the woods.
Hermes: messenger of the gods who was revered as the god of commerce, as well as of wind and swiftness, gymnastics, numbers and the alphabet.
The two major religious holidays are, Christmas and Easter, and these are celebrated all over Greece with customs that are universal in character, but differ in detail from place to place. Christmas has overtaken New Year's Day as the major occasion for gifts, parties and decorated fir trees. In Greece the traditional red-robed and white-bearded Santa Claus appears in the guise of Saint Basil, and on both Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve the children go from house to house singing carols and collecting drachmas.
Especially in the countryside, preparations on Christmas Eve center around the food table, featuring the turkey or the pig which the family has been fattening since mid-summer. On Christmas Eve, too, every housewife without fail bakes a 'Christopsomo', literally a 'Christ-bread'. This is made in large sweet loaves of various shapes, with decorated images carved on the crust, usually representing some aspect of the family's life and work.
Thus, in Macedonia a farmer's Christmas loaf will often be decorated with lambs, kids or a sheepfold. Also it is unthinkable to forget the poor on Christmas Day. At Koroni in Messinia, for example, the first slice from the Christmas loaf is given to the first beggar who happens to pass by the house. Another common custom is to pour a few drops of oil or wine over the hearth. This is a survival from libations of the ancient Greeks to the hearth whose symbol was the Goddess Hestia.
On New Year's Eve family reunions and office parties share the custom of cutting the 'vasilopita', or 'Basil-cake', for good luck in the coming year. Like the western Christmas pudding the vasilopita contains a coin, usually a gold sovereign, which is said to bring luck for the rest of the year to whomever finds it in his slice.
Easter
Easter is the most significant holiday in Greece, deeply embedded in the conscience of the Greek people.
 The candlelight processions of Good Friday, the celebratory fireworks at midnight on Saturday, and Easter Sunday feast and many other traditions, make this springtime celebration a very colorful, festive and distinctively Greek Orthodox holiday.
There are many rituals involved in the celebration of Easter. Churches are filled with worshippers and Lent is observed. On Holy Thursday, the Easter eggs are died red, the braided bread is baked. Good Friday is a day of mourning during which symbolic funeral services, commemorating the death of Christ, are conducted. In a solemn ceremony, the Sacred Icon of Christ is laid in a bier, adorned with flowers and garlands by the young girls of the parish. During the evening service, the bier is carried through the streets with the whole congregation following, carrying lit candles.
Late Saturday evening, the faithful flock to church, dressed in their best clothes, especially young children wearing their Easter outfits and carrying white or ribbon festooned "lambades" (candles), bought by their godparents. Inside the church, the lighting is low and precisely at midnight all lights are turned off. Then, the priest appears, chanting "Come receive the light", calling on the congregation to light their candles from his own. The flame is passed from candle to candle and the church is flooded with the "Holy Light", while people kiss each other, chanting with the priest "Christos Anesti" - "Christ is Risen."
At home, the table is set with baskets of deep red eggs, signifying the blood of Christ, "tsoureki", the special Easter bread, as well as the traditional Easter soup "mageiritsa". The meal usually starts with a favorite Easter tradition: everyone takes turns at an "egg-cracking" contest, each hoping that their own egg will be the strongest and make them the winner. The following day, Easter Sunday, is entirely devoted to feasting and enjoyment, with the festivities revolving around the sumptuous Easter dinner and the spit-roasted lamb. The celebration, singing, drinking and dancing continue for many hours in the outdoors to the sounds of music and merriment.
Source: Press Office of the Embassy of Greece
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