The day of the NO sounds weird but it is one of the most important National holidays in Greece. On the 28. of October Military and different school groups march through the cities of Greece and Cyprus and in many Other countries with a big Greek community people celebrate. They celebrate that Ioannis Metaxas said no to an ultimatum made by an Italian ambassador, in the order of Mussolini, on the morning of the 28. of October 1940. Mussolini wanted that Metaxas by that time the prime Minister of Greece lets the axis forces (Italian and German Military) enter Greece to station military on important strategic points if he does not allow this that would mean the start of the Italian Greek war. Mussolini planned the attack against Greece without the knowing of his partner Hitler. Mussolini felt that as they already had the military stationed in Albania and with 70.000 soldiers, they were in a much better position, than the Greeks with just about 30.000 Soldiers so he thought that it would be easy to attack Greece and to take in Athens and with that the whole country. Instead the Greeks won over the badly organized Italians and with that the European fascist community got their first loss in 20 years of history. For Hitler and the course of the second world war that meant that he had to do an attack in-order to finalize Mussolini’s plans. But that also meant that he had to delay the Barbarossa plan, a attack in the soviet union, witch caused the starting date of it to be in a bad season with then also caused a great loss in strengths for the Germans. Crete got taken in by the Germans witch meant that Greece lost but with the delay of the Barbarossa plan Greece has a great role in the ending of the second world war.
I arrived in Greece on the 30 of September so 29 days before the national holiday. Before I came here I had already heard of that day and I knew some background information about it. But it was my first time seeing it in person. As I work in the second Kindergarten of Vrontados I was in charge of decorating the Kindergarten for it and to also prepare activities about it for the children. As it really is an important weekend I already started with it around the second week. I has to hang up a lot of Greek flags in the entry hall and some posters. In the classroom I decorated a whole wall with pictures of Metaxas, Mussolini and Hitler as well as general pictures of the happenings in the war. In preparation the teachers talked with the children a lot about the topic and also watched some videos about it. The children also learned about flags especially about the German and the Italian one. As I am partially German I also did a short explanation about Germany and the flag in both Kindergarten groups and I made a little coloring page for them.
On the 28 of October all schools and workplaces are closed that meant that the last day would be the 27 of October and as it is usual in the Kindergarten school on that day is just till 10. On that day all the teachers and most of the students were dressed very nicely and the whole room had a very festive atmosphere. As activities for that we had planned to draw about a little picture about the ohi day and we listened to some Greek songs. One teacher also brought her keyboard and played on it and all the kids sang along. In preparation I also made some nurse hats for the girls and soldier hats for the boys out of paper and carton. Which we then gave to children and made group photos. As on the 28 there are a lot of parades we also did a little parade on the playground with the hats on and Greek flags in the hands. The one and a half hour in the Kindergarten passed fairly fast and soon all children got picked up by their parents.
The 28 of October we all wanted to go to the parade in Vrontados which started at 11 so after a breakfast we all walked to the town hall of Vrontados where the parade took place. When we arrived the many people where already there and many more where still coming. Greek music with the topic of the Ochi day was playing in the background. Punctually at 11 the Mayor held a short speech and then already announced the first group, The band of the boy scouts. The band accompanied the whole parade with their music. Afterward groups from the high school as well as the Pekev, something like a homeland association, marched through the main street. After the Parade ended some dance groups also from the Pekev danced some traditional dances on the main place accompanied by Greek music.
As this was my first experience of a Greek national holiday I have nothing to compare it to but I was really astonished by how big the parade and the whole preparations where so big in school. What also was quite new for me was that the second world war was talked about in Kindergarten as in my Kindergarten it was never talked about and in primary school we first talked about it with our teachers. But I found it great that the teachers talked so openly about all the happenings and answered the children’s questions. From the neutrality day of Austria and the Columbus parade I knew parades but both mostly take part in the capital and not in smaller communities so that was new for me too. All in all it was a great experience for me and I learned a lot more about Greece and their customs as well as the second world war. I really liked that I was able to experience that day.
