Greece’s interior ministry this week issued an encyclical towards municipalities around the country on the manner in which the annual Oct. 28 national holiday will be celebrated.
The matter is particularly pertinent to the northern city of Thessaloniki, which annually organizes and observes a three-day period of commemorations and celebrations, beginning on Oct. 26 with the feast day of Holy Great-Martyr Demetrius, the metropolis’ patron saint. The same day also coincides with the city’s liberation from Ottoman rule by the Greek army in October 1912. The three-day festive period ends on Oct. 28 with an annual military parade through downtown Thessaloniki, commemorating Greece’s entry into WWII on the side of the Allies in October 1940.
An official doxology service will take place at Thessaloniki’s Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Demetrius in the morning of Oct. 26; a pupils’ parade will be held on Oct. 27, followed the next day by the annual military parade.