🇬🇷 WHAT’S NEW IN GREECE

🏅 Petrounias places fifth in rings final at World Championships. Even legends have Tuesday. CONGRATS!! 👏 👏 🇬🇷 

🐢 Sea turtle nests surge in Greece, proving environmental protection works when Greeks stop arguing about it long enough to implement it.

More news from Greece

🎓 Athens University professor Georgios Papatheodoridis joins Academy of Europe, aka Scholars’ Champions League.

📚 From seminar to souvl—sorry, no clichés—Greece courts the world’s students and positions itself as global higher education hub.

🏰 Deal signed for Heraklion's Venetian fortifications restoration. Before-and-after photos Heraklion edition incoming.

\🎬 Oscar-winning composer Tan Dun to preface Crouching Tiger screening at Thessaloniki Film Festival. International cinema meets Greek cinephile culture.

🏛️ Seriously? Parthenon sculptures ARE. NOT. PARTY. PROPS!

⚖️ First inheritance law overhaul in 80 years. Expect “call me” texts from your cousins and very “friendly” discussions in 3…2…1.

🚁 Hellenic Army factory converts to drone production - how very 2025.

🧊 Greece introduces social rent and social housing programs to cool the market.

🍺 From hops to high culture - Thessaloniki's FIX Brewery becomes cultural powerhouse housing Russian art collection.

🎾 ATP Tennis returns to Athens after 30 years. Three decades was sufficient break from hosting professional sports.

🥤 That’s one big gulp - Coca-Cola HBC acquires 75% of African bottling operations for $2.6B.

⛽ Big Energy Energy as Greece awards offshore exploration blocks to Chevron.

🌎️ WHAT’S NEW OUTSIDE OF GREECE

🎓 Cambridge celebrates Greek language, acknowledging Greek remains useful beyond philosophy degree requirements.

More news from outside of Greece

🎓 Dr. Ifigeneia Dosi's research visit bridges academia and diaspora at Macquarie University.

🏕️ Two-week diaspora youth heritage camp launching in Greece next summer. Teenagers about to discover village life without Wi-Fi builds character.

🇩🇪 Germany's Greek diaspora diversity examined. Multitalented, multilingual, and very organized.

🏆 Greek Diaspora Excellence honored at 2025 Argo Awards. Annual reminder that Greeks succeed everywhere except occasionally in Greece.

🎭 Comedian Basile connects Greek diaspora from US to Australia, proving Greeks laugh at same family dysfunction across continents.

🎶 The soundtrack of Greece takes flight - music of Theodorakis and Hadjidakis to tour globally.

Got a burning question about Greek culture, diaspora life, or that family tradition nobody can explain?

💌 Send it to [email protected] - your question might become next week's featured Q&A.

💎 CULTURAL GEMS

🇬🇷 OXI (OHI) Day: The National Holiday About Saying No

October 28, 1940 marks the day when Italy’s ambassador in Athens Grazzi handed an ultimatum to Metaxas from Mussolini: “Allow the Axis forces to enter Greek territory and occupy certain "strategic locations" or otherwise face war”. Greece responded to Mussolini with "Ohi" (No), refusing to allow Italian troops free passage through Greek territory.  The official response was actually longer and in French -“Alors, c’est la guerre” (“Then, it is war”), which is great for diplomacy but not that inspiring for parade banners.

What matters is that Greece chose war over capitulation, mobilized overnight and, within weeks, the Greek army had pushed Italian forces back into Albania—becoming the first Allied nation to achieve victory against Axis powers. The celebration has become peak Greek identity performance: diaspora communities worldwide throw massive parades featuring folk dancers, Greek school children waving flags, and speeches about defiance.

What makes OXI Day resonate beyond WWII history is how perfectly it captures Greek cultural DNA—the reflexive resistance to authority and the conviction that principle and being right matters more than being practical. Greeks celebrate saying "no" as national characteristic, which explains both the heroic 1940 resistance and the contemporary inability to agree on literally anything requiring collective action. The diaspora embraced Ohi Day parades with particular enthusiasm because telling powerful empires to go to hell translates beautifully across languages and generations. Every October 28, Greeks in Greece and worldwide commemorate the moment their ancestors chose the hard path over the easy surrender.

🗺️ For Greeks wanting to understand what their parents/grandparents/family members meant by 'we resisted' - the geographic guide is here.

📆 BEST OF GREEK CALENDAR

💬 November 6, 2025, Greece after the War and the Art of Photography: Robert McCabe in Conversation with Panagiotis Roilos, online - Please email [email protected] for Zoom link and code of this event.

🖼️ November 13, 2025, Annual Lectures in Cycladic and Ancient Greek Art—Warrior Princes of Mycenaean Greece, The Met, NYC.

🧳 TRAVEL NEWS

⛰️ Serres: Northern Greece’s Strategic City that Hisstory Keeps Rediscovering

Serres operates as one of those Greek cities that's been important for millennia but never quite became tourist-famous. Positioned in Macedonia's fertile plains with mountains framing the horizon, Serres served as strategic location for Byzantines, Ottomans, and modern Greeks who all recognized that controlling this valley meant controlling movement between Thessaloniki and the Bulgarian border. The city today reflects layers of occupiers who came, built, fought, and left architecture behind: Byzantine walls, Ottoman mosques converted to other uses, neoclassical mansions from 19th-century tobacco wealth, and the kind of central plateia where locals conduct Greek life without performing for tourists.

The city's anchor points reveal its strategic past: the Acropolis hill overlooks everything with Byzantine fortress ruins explaining why every empire wanted this high ground, while the restored Roman odeon show that Serres (ancient Sirra) mattered long before Ottomans arrived. The Freedom Square clock tower marks the city center where locals meet for coffee marathons, and nearby Bezesteni (covered market) operates as 15th-century Ottoman commercial architecture still functioning as marketplace. The Folklore and Ethnological Museum documents regional traditions including the famous Anastenaria fire-walking ritual, while the Serres War Museum provides essential context for understanding the Metaxas Line fortifications and WWII resistance sites scattered through surrounding mountains. Just 30km north, Lake Kerkini functions as one of Greece's most important wetlands—a bird sanctuary where flamingos, pelicans, and herons gather, creating nature tourism that attracts Greeks who care about ecosystems more than beach clubs.

If you’re chasing geology and drama, the Alistrati Cave does cathedral-size limestone with theatrical lighting; for alpine air, the Lailias Forest (and tiny ski center) is your reset button. Serres works as base for exploring northern Greece's mountains, lakes, and WWII sites while providing urban infrastructure that makes extended stays comfortable. It's northern Greece for people who want substance over scenery, though the surrounding landscape provides plenty of both.

🔍 Hidden Local Gems

🦩 Lake Kerkini boat tours - Wetland sanctuary 30km north where flamingos and pelicans gather, locals know best guides for dawn birdwatching tours

♨️ Sidirokastro thermal springs - Natural hot springs 35km northeast, free public pools where Greeks soak, zero tourist spa pricing.

🏰 Fort Roupel - Metaxas Line fortification 25km north, preserved WWII defensive position where Greeks held against German invasion.

🆕 OBSESSIONS 

📎 The Tender Bureaucrat: Photographs From Inside Greece’s State Apparatus.

🫒 Rizes Greek Taverna Brings Authentic Greek Flavors and Tradition to Hillsborough, NJ.

🥔 10 New Restaurants Opening in Athens This Autumn.

🧑‍🍳 RECIPE OF THE WEEK

Akanés 

Serres’ signature sweet is basically powdered-sugar snowfall over buttered nostalgia—aka akanés, the bite that makes relatives forgive your opinions about bougatsa. Made with buffalo butter from Lake Kerkini (hello, depth), it’s a tiny cube with a roasted almond inside and a personality bigger than your dessert plate. Link below before the powdered sugar reaches your keyboard.

💡 INSPIRATION

😎 GREEK FYI

🇬🇷 Lake Kerkini is both one of Europe’s standout birding wetlands and Greece’s water-buffalo capital.

😂 MYTHIC MEMES

That’s it for now: sea turtles thriving, drone production coming soon, Serres proving northern Greece has been strategically important since before tourism made islands famous and, of course, OXI day. For those wanting to visit the actual sites where resistance happened, check the WWII guide. For everyone else, enjoy the parades and remember that sometimes the hard choice is the right choice, even when it leads to complicated consequences. Catch you next week for more news, drama and deep dives. 🧿 Stay Greek. [email protected]

🛑 Disclaimer

This newsletter contains humor, satire, and opinions that may not represent all Greeks or that one relative who argues at every family gathering. We aim for accuracy, but verify important details before starting WhatsApp drama. Unsubscribe anytime (but we'll miss you).