Paxos News - Ochi Day

OCHI DAY

This year we were in Greece for the first time on Ochi Day (No Day) 28th October. A ‘national holiday with patriotic parades and plenty of dancing’ as one of the travel guides on Greece explains it.

Ochi Day is a national holiday held to celebrate Greece’s rejection in October 1940 of the Italian ultimatum to surrender. It is therefore a confirmation of Greek independence and freedom, all the more important for Greeks as they only regained statehood recently and the Dodecanese islands, for instance, were reintegrated into Greece only after the end of the Second World War.

Celebrations are held throughout Greece every year on Ochi Day. In Paxos this year there were processions in Gaios with the school children and bands going through the streets with their Greek flags and then, in more solemn mood, a memorial service of remembrance for all those who lost their lives or family in the period of the two wars – the Second World War and the Greek civil war of 1946-48. Everyone was out lining the streets and adding their support for the event and all the shops were closed, and we were lucky with the weather!

Ochi Day, Gaios.