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Independence (or Liberation Day as it is sometimes called) falls on the day of Annunciation, one of the great feast days celebrated by the Orthodox church. This day is a public holiday in both a secular and a religious sense, marked with military marches and brass bands, as well as with church services. The two things being celebrated are the 1821 uprising against the Ottoman Turks, who had occupied Greece for nearly 400 years, and the news given to Mary that she was to become the Mother of Christ.

Times
Various.