25 March; Anexartisi (Independence Day) and Evangelismos (Annunciation)

This day usually falls sometime during Sarakosti (Lent), and is both a national and a religious holiday. The date marks the beginning of the Greek War of Independence in 1821 (which resulted in Greek liberation from Ottoman rule and the founding of the Greek nation (though at first quite small, and including only 800,000 of the Greeks of the six million living in the Ottoman Empire).

The religious holiday commemorates the announcement to the Virgin Mary (Panaghia) that she was to become the mother of Jesus Christ. Churches and monasteries with the name Evangelistra have their paneyiri on this day, and all male Greeks with the name Evangelios (Vangelis, the familiar form) and Greek females with the name Vangelia or Vangelio, have their name days on this day. Tinos and Hyrdra are a couple of the places in Greece with major celebrations on this day.