By Dimitrios & Katerina Angelatos
GREEK INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATED IN
VANCOUVER
Photos
March 25th is both a national holiday (Independence Day) and a
religious holiday (Annunciation). Therefore it is fitting that this
celebration is carried out in churches and community centres wherever
Greeks are found.
When the Byzantine Empire fell
to the Turks in 1453 the Greeks
struggled to keep their language, religion and sense of identity alive
under the Ottoman rule. It was on the day of the fest of the
Annunciation, on March 25, 1821 that Bishop Germanos of Patras raised
the Greek flag and began the revolution against the Ottoman rule which
in1829 led to a small part of modern Greece being liberated. The
struggle for liberation of other Greek lands continued for more than a
century. It was not until after World War II that Greece regained the
Dodecanese islands, giving Greece its present boundaries
The 185th anniversary of March
25, 1821, Independence Day of
Greece was celebrated in Vancouver in a number of ways.
The
Greek flag was flown at Vancouver city hall for a week in honour of
this important day in the history of Greece and the Greek immigrants
and their descendents living here. This year the flag was flown outside
a second story window of the city hall, facing 12th Avenue. In past
years members of the Greek media, including Patrides had been invited
to record the ceremony at city hall where members of the Hellenic
Community of Vancouver handed the Greek flag to the mayor or his
representative. For the past few years however it seems that the
community is only inviting a very select few to witness the event and
is not interested in sharing it with all of the media.
On Sunday
March 26th the official celebration of the Greek Independence Day took
place at St. George Cathedral and the Hellenic Community Centre. A
memorial was served in the church. A special address by his Eminence,
Archbishop Metropolitan Sotirios was read. As well the Consul of
Greece, George Aravositas read the message sent by the President of
Greece, K. Papoulia on the significance of this important day in Greek
history. The church service was then followed by an outdoor memorial
and wreath laying ceremony at the cenotaph. Taking part in this were
the various Greek churches, communities, societies and other Greek
organizations, many who brought their banners as well as their wreaths.
Later in the afternoon,
starting at 4pm the Hellenic Community
Greek School held its annual March 25th celebrations at the Hellenic
Community Centre. The children of the Greek school put on a program of
poems, skits and dances for the enjoyment of their families and friends.
CONSUL OF GREECE HOSTS NATIONAL CELEBRATION
The Consul of Greece in
Vancouver, George Aravositas hosted a
free luncheon reception in honour of Greek Independence Day, March 25,
1821. This took place on Sunday, March 26th at the Hellenic Community
Centre in Vancouver, after the church service at St. George Cathedral
and the wreath laying ceremony at the cenotaph outside.
The
community hall doors had been locked while the ceremonies were going on
outside but many people had crowded into the vestibule of the hall,
trying to escape the light sprinkle of rain outside. When the doors
were finally opened the Consul was there to greet the people but
because of the large crowd many bypassed the reception line to head
straight for the food tables. Once everyone had their fill of the
mainly Lenten buffet it was again time for the speeches. Peter S.
Kletas, the President of the Hellenic Community of Consul welcomed
everyone to the celebration and the Consul of Greece spoke eloquently
on the importance of this national celebration..
This was the
first time since he took up his post in Vancouver that the Consul
hosted the event here. Last year he was in Victoria for the
celebrations and the year prior to that he had gone to Prairies.
PHAROS - LIBRARIES IN THE
ANCIENT WORLD
On Monday, March 27th Pharos, the Canadian Hellenic Cultural Society
held its 2nd to last meeting of the 2005/2006 lecture season at the
Hellenic Community Centre in Vancouver. PHAROS presented an illustrated
lecture by Professor Hector Williams, University of British Columbia
Department of Classical, Near East & Religious Studies. His topic was
"Libraries in the Ancient World"
Prof. Williams has been a member of Pharos since its beginning 25
years ago and has faithfully served on its executive over the years,
including the position of president. He has spent a lot of time in
Greece, working on excavations and doing research. He has also been
involved with the fundraising for the library of the Canadian Institute
in Athens, Greece.
He spoke on the great libraries of Alexandria, Ephesus and Athens as
well as some privately owned ones within the ancient Greek world.
Egypt was the major source and exporter of papyrus. The ancient city
of Alexandria in Egypt, which lies beneath the modern Islamic city, was
a major center of education until the beginning of Christianity. Its
main library held more than one and a half million papyrus scrolls.
Other libraries around the ancient world also had large volumes of
scrolls. It is amazing how these libraries managed to amass such huge
volumes of scrolls as it often took scribes many years of painstaking
labour to produce or copy just one volume.
While printing and
paper go back many millenniums the paper book of today's world is a
relatively modern invention going back only about 550 years, to the
invention of Gutenberg's printing press.
Pharos will close its
lecture season on Monday, May 1st (rather than the last Monday in
April) with its annual general assembly and election of the Board and
Officers and the presentation by Dr. Anna Christake Cornwall on her
award winning book "Only the Birds are Free", a true story based
on her
experiences in the resistance movement in Greece during World War II.
MP PANGALOS LECTURES FOR ALEXANDER S. ONASSIS FOUNDATION.
Dr. Theodoros Pangalos, MP(Greece) came to Vancouver to speak on
"Monetary stability, budgetary discipline and development: Greece and
the European Union". This was part of a six city lecture tour (
five
in the USA) of the Alexander S. Onassis Foundation (USA) 'University
Seminars Program'. The Hellenic Studies at Simon Fraser University
co-sponsored the lecture which was held on the evening of March 16th at
Simon Fraser University's Segal Graduate School of Business on
Granville Street in Vancouver. The lecture was open to the public and
approximately 60 people were in attendance. Dr. Pangalos also presented
another lecture at Simon Fraser University the following day but that
one was not open to the public. Dr. Pangalos studied Law and Economics
at the University of Athens and earned his doctorate in Economic
Sciences from the University of Paris in 1973. In 1981 he was elected
MP with PASOK and has maintained that status to the present. He has
held many appointments and distinctions during his political career
which included serving as the Representative of the Hellenic Parliament
at the Council of Europe from 1989 to 1993. In 1996 he became Minister
of Foreign Affairs and in 2000 Minister of Culture.
The European Union (EU), established under that name in 1992 by the
Treaty on European Union (the Maastricht Treaty) is an
intergovernmental union of 25 democratic countries known as member
states. It has a common single market, a common trade policy, common
fisheries policy, a common agricultural policy and a common foreign and
security policy. Custom checks have been abolished at the EU's internal
borders, creating free flow of the EU's citizens from one member state
to the other. A common currency, the EURO has also been adopted by
many of the member states.
Dr. Pangalos spoke on the need for the formation of a common market in
Europe after the 2nd World War.. The original member countries in 1952
were France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxemburg and Italy.
The European Economic Community (also known as the Common Market) was
established by treaty in 1957. This later changed to the European
Community which is now part of the European Union. In 1973 Denmark,
Ireland and the United Kingdom joined. In 1981 Greece became the 10th
member state. Since then fifteen more countries, including Cyprus have
joined and more are hopeful of joining.
Dr. Pangalos spoke on the economic situation in Greece before it
joined the EU. Greece was at a disadvantage, lagging behind in
fundamental infrastructure- roads, airports, seaports, etc. It had
problems with agricultural production as 75% of its animal products
were imported from outside. Exports to the EU represented only 29% of
the imports to Greece, a definite trade imbalance. Greece's political
problems also added to the degree of uncertainty. PASOK had originally
campaigned against Greece being part of the EU. When PASOK won the
elections however Dr. Pangalos was asked by Prime Minister Papandreou
to ensure that negotiations went ahead for Greece to join. Since
joining the EU 50% - 70% of the infrastructure in Greece was funded
financially by EU Community. The economy in Greece has greatly
improved. When the EURO currency was introduced in Greece at first
people had trouble adjusting to the new currency but that bubble has
been overcome. Greece is now the dominant force in the Balkans. Greece
is also the dominate force in shipping, with over 50% of the world's
fleet under Greek ownership. Greece has definitely come out as a winner
in this union.
