469. Report on Greek Parade March 2014

Ruth writes:

Is Taste of the Danforth really Greek? While the summer festival has a lot of Greek restaurants and one stage with Greek folk dancers, the Greek flavour is diluted by Chinese food stalls, non-Greek baseball players, and climbing walls.

Last weekend’s Greek Independence Parade was as uniquely Greek-Canadian a spectacle as you can get. At least a couple hundred Greek and Canadian flags flew while a team carried the longest Greek flag ever seen.

Almost a thousand representatives of Greek organizations from the likes of the Levendia Dance Group, Thessalon Federation, and the Pan-Macedonian Association marched in spite of the minus 7°C weather. Some wore Greek costumes and must have frozen. I estimated the parade to be a couple kilometres long.

Too bad it was so cold. Not many spectators were out, even in the sunshine, to see it. And my camera batteries froze so I was unable able to get many pictures. But I did get some.

The occasion was Greece’s Independence Day. https://www.greekcommunity.org/

 If you want to experience more Greek flavour, there’s the GCT OXI Day Parade which commemorates October 28^th, 1940, the day the Greeks said “No” to Italian demands. For this history, see: http://www.ultimatehistoryproject.com/oxi-day.html . We’ll try to let you know when that  parade will be.

 Send us your multicultural Toronto pictures and stories to ruthlormalloy@gmail.com.