Όχι-day is a national celebration day in Greece. During this memorial day, people in Greece commemorate that Prime Minister ‘Ioannis Metaxas’ stood up for his country in 1940 (World War II). At the 28th of October in 1940, Mussolini (Italy) came up with an ultimatum that Greece should immediately surrender to Italy and therefore give Italian free and unimpeded access over Greek territory. If Ioannis Metaxas did not agree to this ultimatum, Italy would invade Greece within three hours. Nevertheless, Metaxas was brave enough and stood up for his country by replying with “όχι!” (means no!), hence the name “Όχι-day”. With his answer, he declared war against Italy and everyone in Greece prepared for the war.
Όχι-day is celebrated with impressive parades where children, students and soldiers marching through the streets. Everyone comes to watch and enjoy all the happy children, impressive soldiers and beautiful costumes. The crowd waves with Greek flags and cheers for everyone in the parade. In almost every square of each city, people in traditional costumes dance different Greek dances.
As an ESC volunteer in Greece you definitely don’t want to miss such a big celebration. In this article, I’ll take you through all the preparations, celebrations and so much more that comes with Όχι-day as an ESC volunteer in Greece (Chios).
The last few weeks before the 28th of October, everyone was talking about a celebration-day on the 28th of October, but I didn’t really know what was going to happen and what they celebrate on that day. In school, we started making a lot of Greek flags and drawings of soldiers for the 28th of October. I especially noticed the word ‘Όχι’ everywhere. All the children also learned a lot of new songs that they would sing on the 28th of October. It was three days before the celebration day, when my teacher in first grade told me more about Όχι-day and everything fell into place.
In the morning of the 27th of October, another volunteer, Marieke from Germany, and I helped with the preparations for the play of the third grade. We had an hour to prepare the theatre and we watched the last rehearsal after we were done. At 09.00 o’clock, the play started and the whole school and the parents of the third grade watched the play. During the play, the children showed the story behind Όχι-day and sang national Greek songs while I took pictures of them and learned more about the history of Όχι-day. After the play, Marieke and I walked to the statue of Afanis Nautis (the Missing Sailor). At 11.00 o’clock, the ceremony started at this memorial in Vrontados. Every school in town represented themselves during the ceremony by holding a Greek flag and laying laurel wreaths at the foot of the memorial. The ceremony ended with the Greek national Anthem ‘Hymn to liberty’, to remember all the soldiers, sailors and airmen who died, and all civilians who perished 80 years ago.
The next morning on the 28th of October, we all got ready to watch the parade. We didn’t really know what to expect, but we knew that a lot of people would go there to watch it, so it should definitely be really exciting and special. We arrived there just in time and we found a perfect spot to watch the parade. The marching band began playing, walked past us and stood in front of us the whole time. So we really had the perfect spot. Every school was presented by around 20 students and marched past us. During the parade, I recognised some children from my school and especially some children from the first grade, in which I help, recognised me too. After the parade was over, they all came together in front of the memorial, the statue of the sailor. Some of the children danced Greek dances as the crowd was standing in a circle around them. After the celebrations were over in Vrontados, we had to hurry to watch the big parade in Chios.
We took a taxi and we arrived at the same time as the parade started. Luckily, we still found a good spot to watch it, even thought it was really crowded. This parade was even longer and more impressive than the one in Vrontados. First, several marching bands marched in the parade. Following by children, young adults and adults marching behind them and representing the scouts. At the end, the military also took part in the parade and the air force, as well as the army and the navy represented themselves. During the parade all the groups of people that were walking in the parade were announced on stage. The whole time the audience was able to enjoy the music, impressive army, beautiful costumes and the scouts in the parade while they cheered for everyone that walked past them. Most of the people that were standing in the audience went to restaurants all around the city to have an extensive lunch with their families and friends after. We, the four other volunteers and I, thought this was a great idea but it was harder to get a table than we thought it would be. Eventually, we found one, and while we were enjoying all the delicious food, we were able to reminisce everything we had seen during the celebrations.
Did you ever think that the answer ‘ Όχι’ from Metaxas would have such a big impact in the future? Even though Metaxas was really brave to stand up for his country in such a frightening situation, it is still very special that everyone in Greece is part of Όχι-day more than 80 years later. If you ever find yourself in the situation of being in Greece on the 28th of October, as an ESC volunteer or not, you definitely need to be part of Όχι-day. It would be a shame if you missed such a big and important celebration. Besides being able to enjoy all the fun things that come with Όχι-day, it is also very important that we will never forget what happened and remember all the victims that fell during the Second World War.
sources
https://www.greece-is.com/october-28-ochi-day/
https://www.grieksegids.nl/griekenland-weblog/28-oktober-een-historische-dag-voor-griekenland.php
https://athenscentre.gr/october-28-what-is-ohi-day/
