Day 31: Everyone loves a parade

A few days ago, Kate and the girls spotted groups of children marching around their school playground together and today we discovered why. The 28^th of October is Ochi Day, which commemorates the rejection, on October 28, 1940, by Greek prime minister Ioannis Metaxas of an ultimatum made by Benito Mussolini demanding that Greece allow Axis forces to enter Greek territory and occupy certain unspecified "strategic locations" or face war. The rejection triggered an attack by Italian forces on the Greek border, marking the beginning of Greece's participation in the Second World War. Later that morning, the Greek population took to the streets shouting, 'Ochi!' ('No').

There was to be a big parade for the commemorations in Ermoupolis this morning, so we drove in and parked by the port. The central square had been roped off, but it was still pretty quiet so we went for a quick coffee and then wandered back to stake out a good spot. People started to arrive in increasing numbers and by the time everyone was ready to get started, there was quite an impressive crowd. This was obviously a rare opportunity to be seen, and everyone was dressed to the nines.

Eventually, the Greek folk songs playing on repeat over the PA stopped and the parade began. First came groups of people wearing traditional dress, then schoolchildren from each of the schools on the island marching with varying degrees of enthusiasm and rhythm, and finally groups such as the sea cadets and scouts. 

It was fun checking out the schoolkids. It seems that the hairstyle of choice for girls is long and straight; for boys, it's definitely short. Interestingly, although the schoolchildren here can wear what they like to school, they obviously have a uniform for special occasions such as this. One of them must specify simply that the children wear denim – the girls were in denim skirts, the boys in jeans.

When the parade had finished, groups of schoolgirls got together in circles to perform traditional folk dances – followed by a group of adults wearing traditional dress. By then it was lunchtime, so we headed down to the port, where we got a gyros each and sat by the water. 

 

Although the day had started cool, by the time we started eating the sun was out and it was rather warm, so we got ice creams for the walk back to the car and then, somewhat crazily, headed down to the beach for a swim when we got back to the house. The hot water system in the house is solar, so you need a hot day to guarantee a hot shower, so I suspect that will probably be our last swim.