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Country
Identification |
Greek Republic |
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Language(s)
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Greek |
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Religion(s)
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97% Greek Orthodox, minorities of Protestants, Catholics and Jews |
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Political System
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Parliamentarian Republic since 1973 |
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Currency |
1 Euro = 100 Cent
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Geographical Information |
Capital: Athens
Area: 132 000 sq. km
South-east Europe, consisting of mainland and 3054 Islands, 167 of
which are inhabited. Albania, Macedonia and Bulgaria border in the north,
Turkey borders in the east, and the rest of Greece is surrounded by the
Mediterranean Sea.
Climate in the north is cool, landscape is woody and mountainous, in
the south hot Mediterranean climate.
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Typical Food and drinks |
Wide range of vegetables. Tasty local cuisine with simple but rich
dishes. Fish is very expensive because of extensive fishing in former
times.
Famous for olives, olive oil, pistachios, honey, Feta cheese.
Retsina is a wine treated with resin. Ouzo and Raki are famous spirits.
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Holidays and Festivals |
National Holidays:
25th March : liberation from the Ottoman Empire
28th October:: The great historic "NO" against an
ultimatum by Mussolini
Most Catholic holidays are observed, but the dates in the Julian
calendar the dates are differ from dates in the Gregorian calendar in
Western Europe.
There are a lot of local festivals with historic or religious
backgrounds.
Carnival is celebrated in February, in all parts of the country.
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History
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Greece is the birthplace of democracy and western culture.
Rockpaintings from the Early Stone Age.
Archean period: 1580 – 600 B.C. (Dorian)
Classical period: 600 – 400 B.C.
Persian Wars, Pidias, Herodot, Sophocles, period of cultural ascendensy
of Athens
Hellenistic period: 400 – 150 B.C.
Philipp of Macedonia, Alexander the Great
Roman period: 150 B.C. – 330 A.D.
Byzantinum becomes capital of the Easter Roman empire
Byzantine period: 330 – 1450 A.D.
conquest by the crusaders
Ottoman rule: 1450 – 1830 A.D.
Turkish rule, wars of independence
Monarchy and Dictatorship: 1830 – 1974
The "New Republic" : since 1974
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Art and culture |
Some of the most famous Greeks were:
Sokrates, Aristoteles, Platon, Homer, Diogenes, Alexander the Great,
Oracle of Delphi, Ikarus, Laokoon,
In 776 B.C., the first Olympic Games took place.
Acropolis,Mount Olypus ,seat of the gods.
Maria Callas (singer), Mikis Theodorakis (musician), Seferis Georgios (lyricist)
National Dance is the Syrtaki.
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Dos and don´ts for visiting the country |
There are no dress regulations in Greece, but one should be suitable
dressed in a church.
The hospitality of Greeks is legendary, but tourists abused Greek
generosity and nowadays such hospitality exists only in the country.
Don’t take a taxi in Athens,you will be faster on foot.
Never take a stone or anything else from an excavation site. The
penalty is very heavy.
Never compare greek cuisine with turkish cuisine.
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Population and
% of foreign population /minorities |
Officially the population is 100 % Greek, but there are minorities of
Macedonians, Turks, Bulgarians, Gypsies, Armenians, and some 300.000
illegal Albanians |
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Main Integration Problems
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Language and Cyrillic alphabet
Education
Unemployment
Cultural Background |
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