Black Tuesday

For Greeks Tuesday is considered an unlucky day of the week. The reason?   It was on Tuesday, May 29, 1453 that the     unimaginable happened, the fall of  "the City,"  Constantinople, to the Ottoman Turks.

It is often said that  businesses that open on this day have a black mark against them, and many Greeks who believe in this  superstition will not venture into a new business on a Tuesday.  In Greece, it's Tuesday the 13th not Friday. Superstition, of course, but it just goes to show you how Constantinople is still part of the Greek psyche, even today, 554 years later.

Ellopos Blog  has a post about the Serbian Patriarch's homily regarding the anniversary and Gates of Vienna writes about how history may be repeating itself.

Comments

[Geo]

Vre Stavro,

I don't like Mondays.

Especially since Monday, April 12, 1204 when a gem of civilization was destroyed. By contrast, in 1453, a Venetian-Genoese trading center, through which Venice and Genoa maintained a monopoly of trade to the exclusion of Greeks, was taken over.

[Stavros]

Re Giorgaki,

Na se kala. Thanks for giving me the topic for a forthcoming post. You are of course quite right.

[christina]

my dad's bday is May 29th (he was born in Greece). There is much debate and speculation as to why he has legal documents from Greece with his birthday as May 29th and May 30th. I can't remember the whole story at the moment, but something about May 29th being unlucky so they changed his bday to the 30th although we still celebrate it on the 29th:)

[Stavros]

Christina,

Thanks for telling your mama about MGO.

I am sure your father's yiayia took all the appropriate steps to avoid any future calamity.