It is the 28th of October and everybody in Greece celebrates the Ochi (NO) day. This proud „No” reminds of the year 1940, when the Greek prime minister Metaxas rejected the ultimatum of the Italian dictator Mussolini.
On this day, there are many parades, even in the smallest villages. Of course, parades in bigger cities like Chios are very impressing and we wanted to see it with our own eyes. The first thing we noticed was the loud music that was already played before the parade. It created an exciting atmosphere and we were proud that we already knew some lyrics of these traditional songs because of the kindergarten and the primary schools.
Although we were told afterwards that there were not as many people as normal at the parade, it seemed a lot to us: parents that wanted to watch their children, grandmothers who were drinking a coffee while watching, also many young people and some curious European volunteers.
Finally, the parade started and we saw besides the impressing military a marching band, many different children from the kindergarten, children from the primary schools, nurses, different sports clubs and much more. Apart from this parade, there were many opportunities to buy sweets, balloons and of course Greek flags.
It was a very interesting experience to see this traditional parade on this important day for the Greek people.
To see all the pictures go into our gallery!
