A couple from central Greece’s Trikala region decided recently to celebrate in the most special way the bicentennial of the Greek War of Independence on the most important day of their lives: their wedding.
More specifically, the Greek couple performed their wedding observing all the customs and traditions of Greece’s early 19th century.
Even the costumes of the groom, the bride, the best man, and the friends were specially made to look like the costumes of the 1820s. This unusual event created a spectacular ”time machine”, that traveled all those involved back to the years of the Greek War of Independence.
This entire project was something that was captured by the UpStories team, which posted a video on Youtube to mark this unusual and yet splendid occasion that took place recently in the plains of Thessaly.
Who is the couple that got married in this traditional Greek wedding style?
Apostolos Costarellos, who is the groom, and his now-wife Arianna, who came from Russia, got married recently in the Byzantine chapel of Porta Panagia, a few kilometers outside of the city of Trikala in Greece’s Thessaly region.
The groom began his marital journey from his home village, Gorgogyri, dressed as an armed Greek revolutionary known as ”armatolos.”
Costarellos was dressed in a traditional costume and came to the church riding a horse. He arrived there with his brother, friends and best men Alkis Argyriou and Stefanos Polygenis.
However, this ride was not an easy task. The groom’s team managed to reach the Byzantine chapel after a 3-hour walk through the forest!
There, he welcomed the bride according to the traditional Greek ritual, who arrived in a carriage of the nineteenth century. This was the very first time that such a carriage appeared in Trikala.
The couple’s arrival was followed by the actual marriage inside the church. However, those who managed to attend this spectacular wedding were only a handful, due to the restrictions that are still in place in Greece due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The Greek Bicentennial
In 2021, Greece celebrates 200 years of modern Greece.
With organizations and communities across the Greek diaspora hosting celebrations, the nation celebrates its revival, after almost four centuries of Ottoman occupation.
March 25, the feast day of the Annunciation, had been chosen as the day of the start of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire, by the leader of the Filiki Eteria Alexander Ypsilantis.
The day was chosen “as evangelizing the political liberation of the Hellenic nation”.
This date was considered a reference point since the early days of the Revolution, and even as the starting day of a new calendar, even in areas that had revolted earlier.
Since 1823 at the latest, it was considered in the Peloponnese as the starting day of the revolution.
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