Chicago’s Greektown district will welcome the Greek Independence Parade this year on Sunday, April 19.
The parade is held annually on Halsted Street in Greektown. It is presented by the ENOSIS Federation of Illinois, and supported by Greektown Special Service Area #16.
As part of the Sunday, April 19, celebration, the Greektown Agora will host a selection of vendors selling Greek art, jewelry and gifts from noon to 6 p.m. at the Elysian Field green space at the southeast corner of Halsted and Van Buren streets, across from the National Hellenic Museum to the north and the parking lot for The Rice Building to the west.
Meanwhile, for the first time in almost a decade, the Evzones, or the Greek Presidential Guard, will be part of the Chicago parade. The Greek soldiers stand guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Syntagma Square in Athens, as well as the Presidential Mansion. They also raise and lower the Greek flag at the Acropolis.
ENOSIS is also holding the Greek Flag Raising Ceremony at Daley Plaza downtown at 1 p.m. Wednesday, March 25. The event is free and will also feature official remarks, music, and dancing.
Greek Independence Day is celebrated around the world on March 25. The Greek national holiday commemorates the start of the War for Greek Independence in 1821.
Greece had been under the control of the Ottoman Empire from 1453 until March 25, 1821, when Bishop Germanos of Patras raised the flag of revolution over the Monastery of Agia Lavra near Kalavryta, Achaea in Greece.
The motto of the revolution, which became the national motto of Greece, was “Ελευθερία ή θάνατος” — “freedom or death.”
The revolution is also associated with the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary — an important celebration for the Greek Orthodox Church. In the Annunciation, the Archangel Gabriel appeared to Mary and told her she would be the bearer of the Son of God.
The first Greek Independence Day Parade in Chicago was held in 1965 — not in Greektown, but right in the Loop, along State Street heading southward from Wacker Drive. The parade moved to Greektown in the 1990s.
