We celebrate the two hundred years since the national uprising of 1821, not the two hundred years from 1821. The date is relevant to everyone; its birthday significance applies only to the Greeks because they were the ones who revolted at that time, winning their modern historical existence at a heavy cost of blood.

The course of our nation has not yet crystallized enough for us to accurately articulate the dynamics of that founding event in historical terms. As long as the country wavers between its strategic choices and the everydayness of our mentalities, the meaning of 1821 will remain fluid, although it is indisputable as an event.

Greek society is in a state of flux, as there still prevails a back-and-forth in political matters that prevents a coherent unity over historical time.

By recording the significance and not the image of the events, the anniversary potentially becomes a source of historical time and as such is inextricably linked to its very arrow.