Detail from the Rossano Gospels, an illuminated manuscript written in Greek during the 6th Century AD. Credit: Public domain The Hymn of Kassiane takes center stage on Holy Tuesday in the Orthodox church, as Greeks move closer to the end of Lent and the great feast of Easter Sunday. The Gospels and Parables chosen to be read on the Tuesday leading up to Greek Easter are all meant to prepare the faithful for the resurrection of Jesus on what is the most important day for Orthodox Christians. Firstly, the Gospel of Matthew regarding Christ’s condemnation of the Pharisees, in which he argues agai ..read more

The village of Oia on Santorini has been named one of the most beautiful in the world. “Should I visit the islands of the Ionian Sea or the Aegean” is one of the most pleasant dilemmas of vacation planning. Credit: Giuseppe Milo. CC BY-SA 2.0 With the coming summer, it will be time for hopeful travelers to face one of the most pleasant dilemmas in planning this year’s vacation: Should I visit the islands of the Ionian Sea or the Aegean? It is a hard choice, as both groups of islands are truly beautiful in all aspects. Both can cater to families and romantic couples or even to party animals. Th ..read more

Part of the Metope that depicts the Twelve Labors of Hercules, or Herakles, originally on the Temple of Zeus at Olympia. Ca. 460 BC. Archaeological Museum of Olympia, Greece. Credit: Nicholas Hartmann – Own work/CC BY-SA 4.0 The Twelve Labors of Hercules, or Herakles (Greek: οἱ Ἡρακλέους ἆθλοι, hoi Hērakléous âthloi) occupy a special place in the pantheon of Greek mythology, and in the worldview of the ancient Greeks. Touching on the themes of madness, murder, and atonement, the Twelve Labors of Hercules exemplify a great many of the ancient beliefs of the Greeks about human nature, and even e ..read more

Konstantinos Cavafy or Kavafis, the Greek poet and master at saying a lot with very little. Konstantinos Kavafis — or Constantine Peter Cavafy as he was internationally known — was one of the greatest Greek poets. He was born in Alexandria, Egypt on April 29, 1863, the last of nine children of the wealthy merchant Petros-Ioannou Kavafis. He died on the very same date seventy years later, in 1933. In a short autobiography, Kavafis wrote of his life: “I hail from Constantinople, but I was born in Alexandria – in a house on Sherif Street. When I was very young I left and spent much of my childhoo ..read more

A monastery on Mount Athos. Credit: Michalis Famelis,  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0/Wikipedia The first of the seven days leading up to Easter, called Great and Holy Week in the Greek Orthodox Church, is Holy Monday. The Church has dedicated this day to the memory of Saint Joseph Pangalos, the 11th son of the great Hebrew patriarch Jacob. Joseph was a virtuous man who chose to live his life as such—something which bothered his older brothers, who decided to sell him as a slave. He was sold to Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh’s guard in Egypt. Potiphar’s wife tried to ..read more

A violent altercation took place on Sunday morning in Athens. Credit: Jebulon, Wikimedia Commons, CC0-1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication A violent altercation between two young men took place outside a popular nightclub in Marousi, Athens in the early hours of Sunday morning at around 03:30 AM EEST (00:30 UTC). The altercation, unfortunately, ended in tragedy as one of the involved young men tragically lost his life soon after. The victim was a 23-year-old man, however, he was not the only one. A 26-year-old man has also been seriously injured in the event. According to reports from Greece ..read more

Credit: John Carnessiotis, Flickr, CC BY-2.0 DEED April 28 is Palm Sunday according to the Orthodox Christian calendar and Greeks across the country flocked to their churches to attend beautiful and moving church services. Thousands of devoted Christians across the nation went to commemorate the triumphal entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem. This unique feast for the Christian faith is always one of the most joyous of the year and marks the beginning of the Orthodox Holy Week that leads up to Easter Sunday, a week later. From small chapels and churches to impressive Cathedrals and from the ma ..read more

The triumphal entry into Jerusalem as depicted on a fresco in an Eastern Orthodox church. Credit: Petar Milošević/Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 4.0 Palm Sunday marks the last Sunday before Easter and signals the beginning of Holy Week, an important period of prayer and reflection for Christians before the Resurrection of Jesus. The feast celebrates Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four of the Gospels. According to biblical sources, Jesus’s entry into the ancient holy city took place just a few days before he was betrayed at the Last Supper, and is deemed to have ..read more

German soldiers hoist the swastika at the Acropolis. Public Domain It was on Sunday, April 27, 1941, when German troops entered Athens. The capital’s residents remained stubbornly locked up in their homes. The hoisting of the Nazi swastika flag on the Acropolis marked the beginning of the German Occupation. Soon, the Germans set up a puppet government with Georgios Tsolakoglou, the general who signed the capitulation, as prime minister. As the Wehrmacht motor units began rolling into the empty streets, the voice of the Athens Radio Station announcer Konstantinos Stavropoulos echoed inside the ..read more

AI depiction of Boniface I, Marquis of Montferrat, the ruler of the Kingdom of Thessalonica. Credit: DALL-E 3 for the Greek Reporter In the turbulent years following the conquest of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, a number of newly-born Latin and Byzantine Greek states emerged. These states were established to fill the power vacuum left by the shattered and tired Eastern Roman Empire, known today as the Byzantine Empire. Among these new states was the Kingdom of Thessalonica, a short-lived but significant realm in the broader Greek region that had bold aspirations and goals ..read more